Saw some little blue lobsters in a tank with platties and swordtails in a pet shop in smallish tank.
Now can lobsters survive in a tank with other community fish, and what sort of parameters do they need etc ph, temp, water hardness/softness.
It is a tropical tank that have got although the ph is far higher then neutral and is 8+.
Will they nip catfish plecs etc, eat them?
What do they eat?
They will eat EVERYTHING inc plants!!!!!!
........but they are cool, heres a link to a thread about my lobster, answers your questions mate
http://www.fishcrazy.co.uk/forums/t/18838.aspx?PageIndex=1
There's some good pics on later pages I think.
I feed mine mussels, shrimp and bloodworm - both frozen and fresh (get the mussels from my local fishmonger - fresh out of the Thames).
Prefer an alkaline pH and a fairly high hardness (KH -10+). They really do need to be kept on their own - i haven't even seen the flash plec i put in there for a while!
1xTrigon 1903 Clown Loaches,14 Cardinal Tetras,8 Rummynose Tetras,6 Cory Trileneatus,6 Hatchetfish,4 otocinclus,1 SAE,1 Bristlenose,, 10 amano Shrimp
Anubius Barteri,Crinum thianum,Limnophilia sessiflora, Echinodorus Blehri, nymphaea lotus, Ammania Senegelis, Crinum calimustratum, java moss, 1xRekord 60Empty at Present
12 litre tank - 4 japonica shrimp, 4 Red crystal shrimp, 5 High Spot Rasbora
Anubias Barteri, Glossostigma Elatanoides, Ammania Senegalisis, Limnophilia Sessiflora, Bacopa amplexicaulis
they do eat everything including fish, i have heard of some success with very fast moving top dwellers - danios, tiger barbs - they can get out the way much quicker than the lobster can ever move...trouble then becomes feeding as these fish scoop it up so fast you have to hand feed the lobster - dont get in the way of those pincers!
65l: ADFs, Cherry Shrimp and EndlersVision 180l: 3 Koi Angels Rio 300l: 4 Festivums, breeding pair
In my experience even danio's and barbs wont survive forever, it just takes a bit longer for the lobsters to catch 'em.
They are very clever animals, the first one I had used to lie in wait balanced on his tail - as soon as something came close he would use his tail to launch himself at 'em - didin't always work but did eventually - and this was hunting hatchetfish and rummynose tetras! They also never seem too sleep and are active all the time, they are supposedly nocturnal but mine is out during the day too. Point is, they will take the fish at night as well.
I must have been quite lucky with my lobster as he seemed to leave the other fish alone. At the time I had a Plec, tetras, gourami, and shrimps.
BUT, if you get a lobster, you can kiss goodbye to any hope of having live plants in your tank. I tried all sorts, even floating ones, and he managed to detroy every single one. I had to make do with plastic ones in the end as even the material artificial plants you can buy didn't last long before they looked awful.
This then leads on to the problem of algea. Without live plants, you'll have to find other ways of combatting algea. I had no end of problems and even got that really horrible slimely smelly form of algea. Since losing my Lobster and being able to replant my tank, my algea problem has vanished.
Here's a photo of my lobster:
Good luck!
Great pic of a nice lobby mate
i have had great success with blue lobsters (crayfish) even in a community tank, i found generally keeping them with larger fish works best as the lobster does seem to have a small fear of larger fish, i had mine witrh royal plecs and such with no fish loss for well over 4 years then sadly my lobby died and im defo thinkking about replacing him..
Tank 1:- juwel 450 :- 2 L206 plecs, 2 leopard plecs ,1 common plec sailfin, 1 golden sucking loach, 2 red scats, 2 kulhi loaches, 10 neons, 1 Flying Fox, 1 4 line pimadella,1 ruby shark, 3 pepper corys, 4 bronze corys, 6 hoplo cats, 1 upside down cat, 1 otto, 2 weather loaches,2 botia striata (zebra loach), 2 botia dario (queen loach), 1 botia almorhae (yoyo loach), 4 botia kubotai (polka dot loach), 1 sumo loach, 4 khuli loach, 3 clown loaches, 1 blue botia (B.modesta), 2 hillstream loach (aka Hong Kong Plec), based with Aquatic Sand.
Tank 2:- 60ltr juwel housing a albino and a black axilotl, 1 paddle tail newt, 2 fire belly newts, based with aquatic sand
Tank 3:- 1 adult male convict with about 40 babies
I must have had demonic lobsters then!! The ones I have kept managed to kill the plecs as well!
hehehe
i dont know about lobsters but we (in australia) have them in dams and creeks and stuff and call them yabbies although they arnt quite as bright as that one in the pic.
2 sword tails (sophie, karen ) , 1 black shark (Al) R.I.P) ,1 golden sucking catfish (bannana) 1 silver sucking cat (Lionel) ,3 brnoze corys (fred, norman and nigel), 3 white clouds (little fishies), 2 Kuhli loaches (iggy and pop), 2 zebra danio (roberto and Garth),
new 3 foot tank yay!!!! thanks mum and dad!!
So there's such a place as Yabbie Creek!?
you would be suprised now many people find this,( especially with the Australian Redclaw) thing is there is no, real way, to tell if it will work. so the question is, is it worth it? that though is up to the keeper.
Things aren't often what they seem, just because i have claws don't make me a killer!!!!!
yeah there is a place called yabbie creek!! i remember me and my brother used to go down to the dam on our property and catch yabbies and then race them down the bank. first yabbie to the water won =)
My childhood was not exciting enough...
Fishity fishity fish fish! ;D
my Rocky live's with lots of guppy's,And i also have 4 large cherry shrimp in there,he has never touched any of them,[IMG]
this is his tank.........