Aquarium Cray fish types Overview
Cray fish is a freshwater crustacean species that look like a lobster. They have various color combinations and sizes ranging from 2 cm to 30 cm. Unlike shrimp, cray fish can survive without water for hours. Sometimes adult crayfish are delivered from crayfish-farm to pet shops without water.
In the market, usually aquarium cray fish are divided into 3 types :
Dwarf Cray fish
Dwarf cray fish are generally from genus Cambarellus. Their adult sizes are relatively small between 2 - 5 cm, mainly to be found along the Mississippi river, rivers around the Gulf Coast until Mexico. These beautiful cray fish are suitable for planted tank since they are not eating plants. Although their diet are not mainly vegetables, too high animal protein proportion in the diet should be avoided since it leads to serious molting problems.
All Cambarellus species can be bred easily in an aquarium. It's essential for hobbyist since these species have relatively short life-expectancy (varies between 14 to 30 months maximum). You should also provide enough hiding places for the young crayfish, some species attack their fellow creatures and even their own young. Please watch their daily behaviour and you better seperate the young from adult crayfish, if it's possible.
Large American Cray fish
These cray fish have been popular as aquarium crayfish for a long time. Some species are cross-breeding, resulting many beautiful color variations, although single color forms (red, white, blue, orange) are more popular. They are species of Procambarus genus, mainly to be found widely through the United States, Mexico and Cuba with adult size ranging from 5 - 12 cm.
They are not suitable for planted tank since they love to eat aquatic plants. It's important to feed them with high vegetables ingredients staple food to avoid serious molting problems.
Crustaceans from Procambarus genus are highly productive, their clutches of eggs can contain more than 300 eggs per brood (with 3-4 broods per year). Some species have unique brood-care behaviour - after hatching, the small crayfish remain with their mother up to 5 weeks to find protection under the mother's abdomen. They have longer life-expectancy than Dwarf Crayfish (more than 3 years).
Australian Cray fish
They are species of Cherax genus - known as large size cray fish, mainly found in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Papua Indonesia with numerous beautiful colorful types. Some species active during the day, while the other species mostly hide in caves or crevices during the day and becoming active at night. The aquarium should provide hiding places such as cork bark, clay pipes, coconut shells, cave decorations, etc.
They are peace-loving cray fish towards each other and can be safely kept with fishes. They grow more slowly than American Crayfish, that's why they have much longer life-expectancy (4 - 6 years).
