Upgrading Zoidberg's tank!

[HerpDerp]

Matthew: Thanks! I had found that page when I first got my crayfish and hadn't been able to find it since then! A lot of useful information there.

Bill: I can't believe anyone would want to keep crays in a planted tank! I had plants in his tank originally and the pulled them all up and ate them within a few days LOL. I will definitely visit that site though to make sure I'm not missing any good info to have!

And I'll definitely update as he moves things around and as I add more fake plants. I plan on getting some long plastic plants that will come up and partially float on the surface so he has something climb on besides the rocks. I think I may have sent the tank into a mini cycle with the new guppies. It's extremely cloudy now, but I don't have a test kit (I know, shame on me). Not much I can do now but keep up with water changes until it's over and hope that the new filter comes soon!

[MatthewM1]

No problem. do you have a light you place over his tank or do you just use room light? I can't decide what to do for my future set up, I'm leaning towards a lamp with a dimmer on top of the screen so I can set it to a timer

[deranged chipmunk]

yeah Michelle, we planted tank folk are frickin nuts!!LOL a buddy of mine actually breeds cpo's and other crays, i put in a pm to him to see what info he can offer. it may take a day or two, but he will get back to me eventually. then i have to decode his pm, english is not his first language...LOL

[HerpDerp]

No problem. do you have a light you place over his tank or do you just use room light? I can't decide what to do for my future set up, I'm leaning towards a lamp with a dimmer on top of the screen so I can set it to a timer

I actually do not have any kind of lighting for him. Crayfish tend to not like a lot of light since they're nocturnal. And their natural habitat (for this species anyways) is ponds and slow moving streams which would have a lot of nice dark places for them. He definitely seems more comfortable with the minimal light that he gets. I'm thinking of getting a small strip light to put on the top for when I want to view him better but I'm going to wait until Have more fake plants giving surface cover so he can get out of the light if he wants.

yeah Michelle, we planted tank folk are frickin nuts!!LOL a buddy of mine actually breeds cpo's and other crays, i put in a pm to him to see what info he can offer. it may take a day or two, but he will get back to me eventually. then i have to decode his pm, english is not his first language...LOL

Lol I guess so! My crayfish even uproots fake plants! I can only imagine the battle trying to get everything from being destroyed haha. Any extra info would be great! Thanks!

[MatthewM1]

Yeah that makes sense I guess not much light gets down to them buried under rocks,i wasn't sure if they needed a night/day cycle

[deranged chipmunk]

the guys i know, keep them with plants that have heavy root structures, like swords, crypts, vals, and a few others. but the plants are allowed to establish themselves for a month or two before they add the crays. believe me, you leave a sword plant in a tank for a month or two for it's roots to establish, and a human has a hard enough time uprooting them...lol when i broke down my 125 for the first time, i had a sword in there for a year. i had to cut it out. when i removed the substrate, the root structure covered half of the tank.
if you want easy, quick growing live plants as floaters, anacharis is cheap, sold at the chain pet stores and is really only good for feeding animals (imho)

[HerpDerp]

Well that makes more sense. And I'm assuming your planted tanks also have a better substrate than rocks or sand lol. I actually had thought of going to some local wetlands that don't come in contact with pollutants and taking some native plants for my tank. Of course I would have to wait until spring, but I think it would really tie the "native" idea together. I might try some free floating types so they can't really be uprooted. Duckweed would look cool, as would water lilies (as long as he doesn't snip the stems). There are just so many possibilities with my new tank . It may not be the dwarf cichlid tank of my dreams but it sure will be fun.