14 replies to this topic

[Robert E]

Hi I have a 48 gallon with a pumpkinseed and I was wondering if I could keep a crayfish with it.

[JasonL]

Should be fine but make sure your cray has some hiding spots or he will be easy pickins when he molts.

[Redfin]

I've had crawfish kill/injure little sunfish if they get too close, usually won't happen though so you should be good.  If the smaller sunfish have to hide from larger fish it could force them into tighter situations in the same hiding spots as the crawfish which leads to most of the issues.

 

Should be fine but make sure your cray has some hiding spots or he will be easy pickins when he molts.

 

I agree with this as well.

[Robert E]

Thank you for the replies!

[Michael Wolfe]

No, it will not work out well

[lilyea]

Hi I have a 48 gallon with a pumpkinseed and I was wondering if I could keep a crayfish with it.

 

Yes you can keep them together, but from my experience the crayfish will eventually become food (even with hiding places).

[Doug_Dame]

The ultimate hiding place for a crawdad is inside the fish tankmate. Ultimate, as in last. 

[Matt DeLaVega]

No, it will not work out well

Martin Moore style!

 

I agree with the comments thus far. A molting crayfish is a helpless tasty tub of goo, when it molts, it will likely meet it's end. However, they are not in short supply. I am all for doing it as long as you understand the ultimate hiding place. Then get a replacement. It is just a long lasting live food.

[JasonL]

I kept a cray of around 3-4 inches in a tank with bluegill and longear for a couple years. Fish were well fed and didn't kill him. That said, I hardly ever saw him either. Spent most of the time buried in various hiding spots. Finally got rid of him when I cleaned the tank and put him in a small artificial pond in my backyard.

[Irate Mormon]

Martin Moore style!

 

I agree with the comments thus far. A molting crayfish is a helpless tasty tub of goo, when it molts, it will likely meet it's end. However, they are not in short supply. I am all for doing it as long as you understand the ultimate hiding place. Then get a replacement. It is just a long lasting live food.

Ha ha Matt, I kept a crayfish with a greenie for two years.  The cray had a piece of driftwood he could stay under.  The two seemed to coexist peacefully for some strange reason. 

[TimCodger]

I think there are two options, they either get accustomed together or crawfish will kill your sunfish, sorry. It's my opinion

[Irate Mormon]

Especially the fire crayfish, those things are just deadly.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

I have 4 crayfish in my tank along with 2 green sunfish. Right now the sunnies are 2 and 3 inches long with small mouths, but once they get bigger, a freshly molted crayfish is irresistible to them. Give the crays some *good* rocks and other places to completely hide otherwise they'll become fish poop.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I have 4 crayfish in my tank along with 2 green sunfish. Right now the sunnies are 2 and 3 inches long with small mouths, but once they get bigger, a freshly molted crayfish is irresistible to them. Give the crays some *good* rocks and other places to completely hide otherwise they'll become fish poop.

This is true.They are very vulnerable when molting. Unless you are ok with losing fish to crays or vice versa, You ought not mix them. Your level of tolerance to losing critters should help make up your mind.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

In my past experiences with crays and sunfish, as long as I gave them enough hiding spots and they grew in size along with the sunfish, I never had any issues with them killing the fish or vice-versa. I tried to keep the crays roughly comparable in size to the fish which were in the 1" range. I also kept the sunfish and the crays well fed, so they never really went hungry enough to eyeball one another. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that they won't chow down on one another....