[AnthonyW8822]

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?

 

[Kehy]

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?

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.

 

[AnthonyW8822]

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.

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.

 

[Kehy]

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.

 

[AnthonyW8822]

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.

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?

 

[ravensgate]

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

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

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

 

[AnthonyW8822]

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

Got it. No clams.