?Blue Lobster

[misopeenut]

it depends on what they eat,
if you feed them something like carrots that has a lot of　carotene( the stuff that makes carrots red), it will be red and if you feed something that has　blue stuff ( forgot what it was called) like a mackerel. it turns blue.

we did an experiment on a freshwater crayfish back in elementary school, took us about 6 month to make that thing to a nice blue crayfish, mackerel only diet

 

[apratsunrthd]

Question for you -- I've read on other forums that these boys are aggressive... some have said they'll set up house in the substrate and snag fish as they swim by. Have you had this problem?

 

[Theatre1sm]

Okay - there is cuttlebone in the tank as well to provide calcium so I feel pretty good about that.

I suppose he may be getting darker because of the substrate - black gravel.

Not a problem to increase the water changes - like I said, I avg. 15 gal but frequently go over that if there is still a lot of floating detritus. Some of the plants get unhappy when the water drops too low - I'll have to do water change 2x a week.

I have Melafix on hand but will hold off for now. His shell isn't pockmarked or pitted - it looks smooth and even just a darker color. I'll read up on the crayfish site and see if there are coloration foods I may be missing.

As to aggressive behavior - when we first installed him in the tank he pinched and fought others over wafers and when they entered "his" territory. Now that he realizes food is plentiful I only see him pinch when a platy or rainbow tries to take a wafer from directly next to him. Occasionally the plec* will headbutt him off a wafer but the lobster just moves on to the next one.