# Do crayfish eat fish? Disappearing white clouds



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi All

I'm supposed to be looking after a tank of white cloud minnows for Aquaman. They were doing great (in my opinion). A couple of weeks ago, we added 2 crayfish to the tank. Now, the number of minnows is dropping and I can't find any reason for that. The minnows look healthy, there are no bodies. Just fewer minnows all the time.

Is it possible that the crayfish are catching the minnows? I notice that the minnows like to be in the lower part of the tank at night, and so do the crayfish.

I don't know how big the crayfish are. How do you measure? Maybe 3 inches or less. One is brown, one is blue. 

The tank is planted, with some broad leafed lotus plants at the bottom that the crayfish sit under. It's not a big tank -- 27 gallon bowfront -- so perhaps there's not much room for 2 crayfish.

As these are not my fish and I hope to give them back to Aquaman after his move, I'd really like to make sure I'm not feeding them to the crayfish, if that's what is happening. But I've never even seen a crayfish before, so I don't know.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yes they are nocturnal hunters and will snatch fish while theyre sleeping on the bottom at night


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## djamm (Sep 25, 2010)

Can any fish live with crays without becoming dinner? Lost an sae and mystery large tetra to a cray!


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yep, a puffer or a ray


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Oh, no!!!! Thanks for the info!


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Maureen.

Crayfish are opportunistic and will eat anything they can get the 'claws' on (dead or alive). They are often cannibalistic when hungry as well .

Respectfully,

Stuart


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## rave93 (Dec 7, 2010)

killed a crap load of my fish


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks, Stuart, Mike, Djamm and Rave

I feel very badly about the disappearing orange white cloud minnows. They are Aquaman's fish and they were doing very well. The crayfish were an afterthought... both of us were sure they'd be fine in the tank as he'd had the crayfish in with fish in his other tanks. It's possible that because this tank is so much smaller than any of his big tanks, that the fish just can't get away from the crayfish at night.

I am going to find another home for the crayfish, to save the rest of the minnows. They're beautiful crayfish -- one is blue and one is brown. They seem very smart and they're fun to watch, so hopefully someone will like them! (Not as food... though I'm sure they're yummy -- they've been dining on the best!)



CRS Fan said:


> Maureen.
> 
> Crayfish are opportunistic and will eat anything they can get the 'claws' on (dead or alive). They are often cannibalistic when hungry as well .
> 
> ...


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## rave93 (Dec 7, 2010)

yeah its a shame, such beautiful creatures!
mine was electric blue, even had babies! i put it in my lil bros tank, he went and did a water change, didnt put ne conditioner and it was killed  
apparently inverts are really susceptible to water quality 
ne way i digress,
get those guys out asap if u still want some of your fish left over haha


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Rave,

Oh, that's too bad about your little brother's crayfish. They really are gorgeous creatures, aren't they?

These two seem quite hardy, fortunately (with water conditioner). I've had them for a couple of weeks now, I guess. They seemed happy. Maybe a little too happy!

I really want Bill to have some fish left over for when he's ready to set his tanks up again, so I'll have to part with the crayfish if they've developed a fondness for filet-o-minnow.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Morainy said:


> Hi Rave,
> so I'll have to part with the crayfish if they've developed a fondness for filet-o-minnow.


Make sure you check the filters as well. I thought I got rid of all mine until I knock down the tank. The little guys can hide well and even live inside your canister filters - even under the undergravel plate.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks for that advice, gklaw. I didn't know that!



gklaw said:


> Make sure you check the filters as well. I thought I got rid of all mine until I knock down the tank. The little guys can hide well and even live inside your canister filters - even under the undergravel plate.


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## Phillyb (Jan 18, 2011)

it helps if the crays bigger it can handle water changes easier..i love watching them swim around and also get eaten by my puffer its like 2x the awesome...supper stoked finally got 1 crays with like 200 babys soon to all be dropping!


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## Clownloachlover (Apr 21, 2010)

years ago I had a crayfish that lived inside of an old ceramic boot that I had placed in my tank...never saw it during the daytime or when the lights were on, come night time when the lights went out and it was dark in my room, Mr. Cray would come out and harvest all of the unsuspecting fish that decided to sleep on the rocks or lower branches of the artificial plants. I would find the odd partial fish and the remains in the tank in the morning and just figured it was my other larger fish snacking on the smaller ones, until such times as most of the fish were about the same size, I never guessed mr Cray was the culprit...but caught him red handed (or clawed) one night with a flash light. He managed to consume his fair share of neons and emperor tetras and all along I thought it was the larger angels in my tank.

So after I caught him, I gave him a nice 33 gallon tank all of his own, with his live in ceramic boot and fed him small feeder gold fish from that point on...he lived for about 5 years and got to be about 5 inches in length until such times as he tempted fate and climbed out of the tank and fell from the top of the aquarium about 4 feet to the floor...where he was promptly met by my 22 pound cat that played with him for a while before killing him and consuming his cray tail and claws...I just wonder if the cat dipped his parts in butter or required claw crackers to get to the cray meat??? (referencing lobster eating tactics for those of you that do not consume lobster or crab)


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

That's a very good crayfish story, Clownloachlover. It's a lucky crayfish that has a 33 gallon tank all to himself! (Though come to think of it, it's an even luckier one that has 30 unsuspecting minnows in there with him...)

Lucky cat, too, though...

My crayfish have gone to a good home now. I'm looking for some gold coloured white cloud minnows to restock Bill's tank. (Hope you're not reading these posts, Bill...)



Clownloachlover said:


> years ago I had a crayfish that lived inside of an old ceramic boot that I had placed in my tank...never saw it during the daytime or when the lights were on, come night time when the lights went out and it was dark in my room, Mr. Cray would come out and harvest all of the unsuspecting fish that decided to sleep on the rocks or lower branches of the artificial plants. I would find the odd partial fish and the remains in the tank in the morning and just figured it was my other larger fish snacking on the smaller ones, until such times as most of the fish were about the same size, I never guessed mr Cray was the culprit...but caught him red handed (or clawed) one night with a flash light. He managed to consume his fair share of neons and emperor tetras and all along I thought it was the larger angels in my tank.
> 
> So after I caught him, I gave him a nice 33 gallon tank all of his own, with his live in ceramic boot and fed him small feeder gold fish from that point on...he lived for about 5 years and got to be about 5 inches in length until such times as he tempted fate and climbed out of the tank and fell from the top of the aquarium about 4 feet to the floor...where he was promptly met by my 22 pound cat that played with him for a while before killing him and consuming his cray tail and claws...I just wonder if the cat dipped his parts in butter or required claw crackers to get to the cray meat??? (referencing lobster eating tactics for those of you that do not consume lobster or crab)


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

Maureen, Ipu had some gold minnows last month. I would check with them. Hope you find them.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Ohk, thanks for the tip, Atom. I'm overdue for a trip there, too.



Atom said:


> Maureen, Ipu had some gold minnows last month. I would check with them. Hope you find them.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I was at Aquariums West today to drop off my old Ebi lights (Fluval sent me new ones) and they had 10 gold white cloud minnows. I took all of them. They were inexpensive (luckily). Now, I only need about 10 more, any colour. I'll get over to IPU on the weekend, most likely.


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## spanky (Apr 10, 2011)

crayfish are hungry buggers. u never see em eating your fish cuz they pick em off at night while the fish are "sleeping". thats the only reason i have never purchased any crabs or crayfish. they are pretty cool to look at though.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

The crayfish have been rehomed. The white cloud minnow population has stopped plummeting. Coincidence? I think not!


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