# Could I get a Mexican orange dwarf crayfish?



## hgual22 (Jul 18, 2014)

My tank is cycled and im stocking it with a honey gourami and 3 male guppies next week. Its planted, has 3 terra cotta pots as caves, gravel, an airstone, filter, heater, 10 gallons. 

Is this suitable for a dwarf crayfish? Will it get along with the honey gourami and guppies, since the fish will be at the middle/top, and the crayfish at the bottom?

Any suggestions welcome. Wouldnt get the crayfish for at least anothe couple weeks, and not if theres any risk to my fish, or the tank isnt suitable.


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

IMO... The fish will sleep at night, the crayfish will hunt and eat. The guppy if it has a fan tail is at risk, easily grabbed. I have one Honey Gourami and I would say it spends most of it's time, 80% at the surface among my floating plants... but I do find him curious at times and he's down on the gravel snooping around in the plants on the bottom. It would only take a second for a crayfish to grab him. Gourami are slow swimming fish and quite peaceful. 

What about a species only tank with a few crayfish in it?


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## hgual22 (Jul 18, 2014)

I woul definitely rather the Gourami and Guppies. Just was curious about the crayfish. They seem cool, which is why I would like one, but I would rather the fish. 

I do want something on the bottom though, and dont think I have enough room or any fish bottom dweller, so maybe I'll eventually get some shrimp and see how that goes. 

Thanks!


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Good choice. You'll be happy once you have them home and acclimated. Post a pic when you do!


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## hgual22 (Jul 18, 2014)

Definitely will, I'm super excited! I'm so impatient, I'm proud I got through the fishless cycle.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Dwarf crayfish are not like other crayfish and are safe to keep with fish. They are very peaceful and even when they do get in the mood to hunt anything they are slow and pretty inept at it. Dwarfs will only going to get fish that are really sick or dying. 

I have two in my tank and they typically ignore most fish and I've seen many time when they are behind a fish that doesn't know they are there and the crayfish will just walk past them. The few times I've seen them in hunting mode they sneak up on the fish and wave their claws around like they are letting them know they could get them and move on. They are great at hunting snails though.

Dwarf Crayfish also have so much personality. I love my fish, but none of them have the personality the crayfish do. The important thing is to make sure they have some kind of cave to hide in.


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## farmgirl82 (Jul 30, 2014)

N25philly what kind of snails does yours hunt? Do you have the Mexican orange dwarf Crayfish? I have mine with a large mystery & a smaller nerite that keeps sneaking to that side of the tank(divided). They seem to be ok but I worried the dwarf Crayfish will eat the nerite.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

I have ramshorn and mts. I don't know if they will hunt the bigger ones. Most things I've read only mention them eating the smaller pest snails. (It's so cute when they go for the mts as it looks like they are eating an ice cream cone) Nerites they could maybe get, but I doubt they could really do anything to the mystery snails. Also while they are good at hunting the snails I don't see them eating that many. If you are regularly feeding the crayfish they are not going to eat lots of snails.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

farmgirl82 said:


> N25philly what kind of snails does yours hunt? Do you have the Mexican orange dwarf Crayfish? I have mine with a large mystery & a smaller nerite that keeps sneaking to that side of the tank(divided). They seem to be ok but I worried the dwarf Crayfish will eat the nerite.


One thing I will say is that my crayfish (and yes they are CPO's) only seem to hunt the smaller snails. I noticed they pick them up to eat them, so bigger snails and nerites I would think would fall into the category, should be too big for them to eat.


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## farmgirl82 (Jul 30, 2014)

Ok. Thats great. Thank you for the info. Do you feed your CPOs anything special or do they get leftovers from your fish?


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

They typically eat what the bottom feeders eat. I rotate between shrimp pellets, bottom feeder pellets and algae wafers. Whatever I put in they will rush over grab a piece and try to hoard it for themselves. They are scavengers, so they will eat pretty much anything


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