Big Crayfish?

I want to have a crayfish around the 7+ inches range for a species tank at some point. Problem is, the only one I know of is the Rusty Crayfish. I live in Pennsylvania, and they're a banned species for import here. So my question is, are there any big crayfish besides the Rusty?

plenty of other species but I can only id a couple of species not very good with them. I would like to be better but don't have any good id books for them. Anyone have a good crayfish id book for Ohio or maybe something broader?

Petshrimp.com has a forum with crayfish as a topic, they may have some info for you.

A 7 inch crayfish is pretty big. Out of all of the sampling that I've done I don't think I've seen one get much bigger than that. I know the rusty's can be monsters though. Luckily they havn't made it into Maryland yet. I have some information on identifying crayfish in Maryland. The species may vary some with crayfish in PA. The most accurate way to identify them is by looking at the shape of their gonopods underneath their abdomen. The problem is that if the specimen is a female or a non-breeding male the gonopods won't be present, which means you have to look at other characteristics that are not as reliable.

I've caught some pretty big red swamp crayfish (procambarus clarkii) before. These guys are also non-native to Maryland.

I'll see if I can find some info that might help you identify them. But keep in mind the species most likely vary between MD and PA.

Thanks for everything so far.

Any information reguarding the ID of crayfish would be great, I have no idea even how to start to tell the different species apart.

The Rusty Crayfish hasn't been found in my watershed yet, and I'm happy. I'd just like to keep one as a pet. That's illegal though, so I'm just looking for some kind of replacement.

I've also considered the Red Swamp Crayfish too. I just think they look really neat, I just don't think there's any around here.

I want to have a crayfish around the 7+ inches range for a species tank at some point. Problem is, the only one I know of is the Rusty Crayfish. I live in Pennsylvania, and they're a banned species for import here. So my question is, are there any big crayfish besides the Rusty?

I recently joined this forum http://www.crayfishmates.com/forum/ seemed to me to be the best of a few that I sampled for crayfish talk. Very nice site compareable to this one. You can post photos, pm people, start threads etc etc. Check it out I think you will find it very helpful.

Kind Regards,
Daniel

Here is a useful key
http://www.lhup.edu/..._reference_.htm

and a useful resource about NA crayfish
http://crayfish.byu.edu/

I hate to advertise other forums on a forum, but there are some true experts at the forum at bluecrayfish.com They even have a specific forum dedicated to IDing crayfish. Look for user name Appy.


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