Mexican Dwarf Crawfish

AnthonyW8822 said:

So, I bought a Mexican Dwarf Crawfish for my 30g work in progress tank today.

Its cycling with my two cichlids, two danios, and a clown pleco in it (doesn't really need cycling - I used old sand and put in about 5 gallons of established aquarium water in it, along with some quick start stuff - I'm just saving up for the remaining work on it)

I wanted a pretty red crustacean that was large enough my cichlids wouldn't bother it.

Does anyone have any experience with them?

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1) The water of an aquarium doesn't have much beneficial bacteria in it. Gravel and filter media do. I wouldn't call your tank cycled, until the sand was just in another mature tank...you didn't quite make that clear

2) What kind of cichilds? Africans will bother/fight everything, and some SA cichilds aren't much better...Rams, kribs, and angels are another story.

Kehy said:

1) The water of an aquarium doesn't have much beneficial bacteria in it. Gravel and filter media do. I wouldn't call your tank cycled, until the sand was just in another mature tank...you didn't quite make that clear

2) What kind of cichilds? Africans will bother/fight everything, and some SA cichilds aren't much better...Rams, kribs, and angels are another story.

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I grabbes this sand out of a fully mature tank - it was still very wet when I put it in

The chichlids are very small Africans. I'm trying to give them away because their temperment just isn't suited to what I want done with this tank. Actually, one of the behaves very passively. It has claimed a driftwood cave as its own and doesn't bother anything else. But one is horrifyingly aggressive.

Just as a warning, you might wake up with 2 less danios, and 1 less CPO, Africans can be nasty. Good luck with rehoming them though.

Kehy said:

Just as a warning, you might wake up with 2 less danios, and 1 less CPO, Africans can be nasty. Good luck with rehoming them though.

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Well I have a total of 5.5 inches of fish in a 30 gallon tank right now - crawfish not included. I don't tend to tank crustaceans into much account when factoring bioload. I'm considering a bottom feeder like a cory cat to take care of excess food. I'm also going to switch to Kens flake food sometime soon - rather than frozen stuff.

My plan is to have the crawfish, 3 to 5 cherry shrimp, maybe a pair of cory cats, and possibly a clam on the bottom. My clown pleco sits under the driftwood at all times. Then a school of rasboras and a school of cardinal tetras. I was thinking one school of 8 and one school of 10 or 12. Does that sound too much for a 30 gallon?

Clams and you are asking for problems. They die and they can cause an ammonia spike that will wipe out your whole tank

This is why I stopped using mystery snails as well. One dies, suddenly the ammonia spikes.

ravensgate said:

Clams and you are asking for problems. They die and they can cause an ammonia spike that will wipe out your whole tank

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Got it. No clams.