crayfish size question

[Lightning Bug]

so i want a crayfish but the biggest aquarium i have to put one in right now is a 5 gallon. i know a little one inch baby will be fine in there for a while but are there any species of crays (that are not hard to find for sale) that will be ok in a 5 gallon as an adult? what about those generic brown/reddish crays sold for a few dollars as feeders? how big do those typically get?

[Wycco]

The type sold as feeders will get too big- and they'll eat your fish/plants.



There are several species in the cambarellus genus that are plant safe/fish safe/(adult) shrimp safe/snail (with operculum) safe.

Cambarellus Shufedtii is perhaps the most common one- Cambarellus Patzcuerensis (sp?) is available in a nice Orange colour. There is also another species known as Montecuzomae (or something like that) - all three of these species in their wild colours are hard to differentiate and have similar habbits. They won't grow more than 1½ to 2 inches long.



If you're looking for sellers- on this website MsJinkzd has the Orange ones for sale from time to time- Jamesstill84 sells the Shufedtii. I've purchased inverts from both of them during the past year and would recommend either of them as a seller.

[blue2fyre]

I have a Cambarellus patzcuarensis sp. Orange in my 5 gallon planted tank with shrimp and snails. He looks huge next to all the other inverts but is only 1.5" long. He's really cool and has a lot of personality. Also the color is amazing on these guys. They really are bright orange. MsJinkzd has some for sale you could PM her about them.

[Wycco]

I'll agree on the personality thing (don't have a Patz myself- only shufedtii) - if you've kept shrimp - dwarf crayfish have 100 times more personality than shrimp do.

[Lightning Bug]

thanks guys! im gona look around at some lfs and see what i can find. :)

[Bubbles2112]

You probably won't find any of the dwarf crayfish in a LFS and will probably have to buy them online. As was stated Msjnxd'd has CPO's at times and I have many dwarf shufeldtii's. There are other sellers as well here on AC that would be more than willing to help you out.

[blue2fyre]

You never know though because I found mine at the lfs.

[Bubbles2112]

Thats cool! :cool: My LFS's around here usually don't have diddly when it comes to crayfish or shrimps. It would be awesome to walk into a LFS and see some!!!

[Wycco]

I've once seen crayfish in a store- Superpetz had what I believe now- were Alleni (they didn't know the species... or anything about them- "Corporate only tell us that they're Crayfish")

Come to think of it- the LFS and chain stores around me are bad on any inverts. The only inverts I've seen for sale- other than the Alleni are ghost shrimp and "mystery :screwy: snails" (Really Bridgesii- you'd think they could ask the seller rather than leave it as a mystery).

I think anywhere is better for finding inverts than Columbia South Carolina though.

[blue2fyre]

Yeah this fish store I go to isn't a box store. They really know their stuff and get lots of cool fish and inverts in. I was at a well known box store recently asking some questions about some substrate. I told them I had cherry shrimp and they had never heard of them and asked me if I meant ghost shrimp.

[kurosuto]

CPOs are pretty cool. Got 2 of them from msjinkz and shes pregnant within 3 days! no complaints there. The tiny 1" male however loves to raise its tiny claws at me...grr. and they're attacking my BN for a small cave under driftwood. Very cool lookin invertz if you ask me but aggressive to owner i guess...I usually just put those make-up mirrors in front of them to scare them away. its funny how it cowers away after awhile.

[kurosuto]

to answer your question. I believe jinkz sent me a full grown female and shes about 1.4-1.5" only. I got 2 in a 12 gallon eclipse.