Check out this giant crayfish

[aquanaught]

Just wanted to show this huge crayfish I caught in a local pond. I have had him housed in a 30 gallon tank for nearly a month now. He eats algae wafers, shrimp pellets and pressed plankton. When I first got him he was completley covered in algae, after being in my tank for a few weeks he has really cleaned up well and is now a nice clean redish brown. Anyone have any suggestions on what else to feed this guy?

[Rob in Puyallup]

You caught him here, in WA? I'm impressed, biggest one I've ever seen! (Sure it's not a lobster?)

I'm thinking he'd probably eat just about anything, including fish.

[aquanaught]

Yep caught him in Washington, I caught him in fresh water along with smaller ones. He is very cool I wonder what the state record is.

[Reeyia]

Hey Aquanaught!!! I'm in Skagit Valley!! Where 'bouts are you?

[bulrush]

He'll eat what you gave him, plus live or freshly dead fish, fresh/frozen shrimp from the store, or most any animal that lives in the water. Crayfish and lobsters are scavengers that prefer fresh meat.

[bpmox]

Originally Posted by aquanaught

Anyone have any suggestions on what else to feed this guy?

Children.

[nismo tetra]

you have to get a godzilla toy and let him battle it. Would be classic.

[DevinWolfe]

Holy crap he's huge!

I used to live in Arkansas where there are huge ponds ALL over. Crayfish run rampant, even in peoples yards miles from the ponds. But I have never seen one THAT big.

I would try to see if he could snag "feeder guppies" or something like that. I've never seen what they eat.

[pam916]

What a catch. He is awesome.

[connordude27]

wow thats huge! i have seen some very large crayfish though in Mason lake in the cascades but wow do you keep any fish with it?

[rasbora]

Can you post a pic of it in the aquarium?

[aquanaught]

I have returned this beast back to his home sorry those were the only pics I got of him.

[demosthenes]

Originally Posted by bpmox

Children.

LOL!!!!!!!

that crayfish was truly incredible. I think it would be fun to set up a custom tank for crayfish someday. At my LFS they have this tank that has a footprint of about 3' x 3', but its only about 10" deep. They use it for freshwater stingrays (haha my LFS has some really weird stuff... they're cool but like $300 each and REALLY difficult to take care of), but I think you could take something like that and turn it into a really interesting crayfish tank. You could have a little school of feeder fish in there so keep the crayfish busy, and feed them algae wafers and shrimp pellets and stuff because they probably wouldn't be able to catch the fish.

I had a bunch of crayfish last summer, and it was so much fun to watch them catch little minnows! They are really smart animals, which you wouldnt exactly expect from a crustacean. They're fun pets, especially when they're gorgeous like the one you caught!

[JakeJ]

That is HUGE, and you got him from a pond! Really cool! Could I keep some 'dads with my 3in Convict Cichlids?

[ov10pat]

Originally Posted by JakeJ

That is HUGE, and you got him from a pond! Really cool! Could I keep some 'dads with my 3in Convict Cichlids?

I had a crayfish in with some baby (1.5") Africans, and when it came molting time for mister cray the babies ripped all of his legs off. It was really sad. Im not sure what Convicts would do, but they are cichlids.

Patrick