File :-(, x, )
Freshwater Critters Anonymous
Can anybody recommend some ground dwelling critters for my freshwater aquarium? It's a 50 gallon tank, with 4 goldfish, 2 swordtails, and 2 plecos. I'd love some kind of shrimp or crab. Any recommendations? The should be relatively easy to keep.
>> Anonymous
Yabbies.
>> Anonymous
>>259172
Cool, can the yabby be found in pet stores in the US?
>> Anonymous
Yabbie = Crawfish

Yes, you can find them in the US.
>> Anonymous
Cherry shrimp. That or ghost/glass shrimp.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>259172
That was a joke, they'd eat your fish! Don't get one lol!

"The common yabby (Cherax destructor) is the best known of the freshwater crayfish species native to Australia . It occurs west of the Great Dividing Range in NSW, through the Murray Darling basin into QLD, Victoria and South Australia . Feral populations exist in Western Australia . It is the most abundant and successful of the Australian freshwater crayfishes."

So no, you can't find yabbies in the US :)
>> Anonymous
If you get a crayfish for your aquarium you're going to need to get a lot of feeder fish too so he eats those and not the fish you want to keep. I used to keep one in my fish tank with all my other fish and he ate a lot of em except my really old bad ass catfish.
>> Anonymous
>>259474

The US variety isn't the same species, but they are in the same family, and they are functually identical.

They are OK with some fish, but it's a fine line to tread: Fish are often either small enough to be overpowered by the crawfish, or they are large enough to eat it. The safest method is to stick with larger fish the crawfish won't bother, but to keep a lot of cover in the tank so the crawfish has places to hide. So long as the fish aren't starving they probably won't eat it. I have kept crawfish with caribes in this manner with only rare losses. Keep in mind that they are very inexpensive (often free if you look around a bit), so even if you loose one, it's no big deal.

Then again, OP's fish are small so they'd probably end up as yabbie/crawfish food. Shrimp would be preferable to keep, or keep the crawfish SMALL.