Captive Habitat of the Crayfish

Crayfish (also called crawfish, crawdads or mud bugs) can be kept in captivity in several different environments. The scale of the captive habitat will vary with the animal's size and the purpose of the habitat, but there are some similar elements between them. For example, crayfish kept as pets will have different habitats than those kept for aquacultured food.

  1. Home Aquariums

    • Crayfish can be kept in home aquariums with fish as pets, and are often sold under the description "freshwater lobster." Crayfish will fight and kill one another, so only one crayfish should be kept in an aquarium. The crayfish needs plenty of hiding places and sand or coarse gravel as a substrate. They can be housed with live freshwater plants, but the crayfish will eat the plants. It is safe to house crayfish with freshwater fish since the fish are too quick for the crayfish to catch and eat; however, crayfish will eat fish fry (baby fish).

    Aquaculture

    • Crayfish can be farmed in large freshwater ponds -- a practice known as aquaculture -- for food. The most commonly farmed species are red crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) and white crayfish (Procambarus blanding acutus). Aquaculture fields typically are shallow ponds sometimes filled with swamp weeds and grass. The substrate of the pond is mud, preferably with a high clay content to prevent water from draining away.

    Habitat Water Parameters

    • For either aquariums or aquaculture ponds, crayfish have certain preferred water parameters. Crayfish have a wide temperature tolerance range of between 65 and 85 degrees, although crayfish can survive at higher or lower temperatures. Crayfish also can tolerate a wide pH range of about 6.5 to 8.0, a much wider range than many fish. However, like most crustaceans, crayfish do not tolerate high levels of nitrate, so the water must be regularly replaced with fresh water.

    Crayfish Diet

    • Crayfish are omnivorous animals, eating both plants and animals. They also can cannibalize other crayfish if food is scarce or they are housed in too small of an environment. In both aquariums and aquaculture systems, crayfish can be fed leftover plant material such as spinach and cucumbers, as well as snails and small, slow-moving (or dead) fish. In aquaculture systems, there also may be naturally occurring organisms the crayfish can eat, including plants and smaller crustaceans.