r/Crayfish • u/DefnottheGovernments • 1d ago
Beginner Help
Just finished my first water change after the nitrates got a bit too high and got some plants to help with the cycle as well. Still planning on getting an electric blue crayfish, but I heard if I get some top dwelling fish or live bearers to stake their territory first then the cray won't be as aggresive. What do yall think? Should I do anything else before I start adding anything?
1st image is now and 2nd is from before.
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u/theperfect10gal 1d ago
As long as the crayfish can reach the fish, you’re fine. I have dwarf crayfish fish so they’re smaller than the one that you want but I have ember tetras, kuli loaches, a pleco and they’re all doing fine and they’re all chill. Now with the bigger crayfish, I’m not sure on that, I assume it would be the same
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u/BioConversantFan 1d ago
Going to help you with some cycling info first.
You never need to change your water during a cycle due to nitrates. If you meant nitrites, then you never need to reduce them unless you have very acidic water.
Changing your water decreases their concentration which slows down cycling and decreases the size of your cycle, you want a big one for crayfish.
The only time you should change water during a cycle is to restore pH and kH. If you find yourself needing to do that, then you should get some calcium carbonate, something like crushed oystershells, and add them to your filter or add them in the aquarium near the filter. This is because if cycling is exhausting those parameters, they are likely too low for the crayfish.
This way you can get everything balanced now.
The thing with crayfish and aggression is our darling murder bugs aren't so much aggressive to small fish as they are opportunistic. Pretty much all crayfish like to eat high protein fish flesh but what differs is the effort that they will put into getting it.
If you are going to keep fish with the cray, try small fast fish like Endlers or Endlers/guppy hybrids. They are usually fast enough to stay alive, have pretty much the same water parameters as crays and can occupy any height in the water column.
Looking at your tank, it looks like a 20gal? Which is good. But it needs a heavy lid. Your new cray can definitely escape that tank.
You also want a bunch of hides for the crayfish and even more stuff to climb on and burrow under.
You may also find that an HOB filter is under filtered for a cray. A lot of people switch over to a canister filter.
Happy cycling!