They're so fun to watch, last summer I went fishing and we found two baby crayfish while we were there. Before I knew kokos, I put them in my 55 gallon goldfish tank, and I watched then grow from fingernail size to a good thumb size, I realized they had gotten a hold of one of my goldfish and teared up his tail. I knew the problem wouldn't have improved so I had to get rid of them.

I was wondering if its ok to keep one crayfish in a ten gallon unoccupied tank, he would be wild caught, but what I've seen are they are survivors and readily eat whats in front of them.

SOmebody else here on this board has one of those guys. I think they are so cool. Here is a link to the thread. It had a lot of good info. http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...amp;hl=crawfish

am i the only one that knows these things as craw-dads? that what i grew up digging for in the river...

haha, I know them as crawdads as well.

We used to 'fish' for them in the ditch down their holes using salt pork and string. They'd just latch on to it and you could pull them right out of their hole. Then you let them get done eating and they'd go back into their hole and you'd start over.

I guess not all types of 'crayfish' build those mounds and stuff.

I've always called them crawdads too. Don't know if that's a remnant of my Southern upbringing or not... out here everyone calls them crayfish.

They do make great, interesting pets but I would not recommend catching one from the wild. In most places that is illegal, and you don't know what a wild one may be harboring. Also, if you were to collect a female who was full of eggs, that would really take a toll on the number of babies that would grow up there. I know they're not endangered but please think twice before keeping any wild animal as a pet.

At a lot of mom n pop type pet stores, you can get crawdads inexpensively. They are sold as feeders for larger fish. At the pet store where I worked, we would get all different sizes in, and sometimes different colors. I would often find the blue color morphs which are just amazing!

Like most crustaceans, what you feed them can help determine their color. Feeding foods rich in carotene will bring out the nice, vibrant reds and oranges.

Please also make sure to keep a very secure lid on the tank for them. They are excellent climbers and can survive out of the water for awhile. You don't want to be putting on your slipper one morning and be pinched!! (And yes, these guys have a very powerful pinch, so always pick them up right behind their heads. They can't bend to pinch you at that angle.)

I have also found with our crayfish (aussie ones) that they will colour to match their surroundings. They are naturally an olive-grey colour but with blue stones and a blue/green plant background on their tank they moulted up a nice blue colour. I've also read this on a yabbie fact sheet somewhere.

A 10 gallon would be great for a yabbie, I had one in a 15g and another in 8g, you wouldn't want to go much smaller. One of my yabbies just died at almost 4 years of age and the other is still going strong. We got them as little feeder yabbies at a school fete and they grew to about 20 cm.