Fishbug.com
Koi pond and water garden information, pet information, pet care and Koi and Goldfish care from the nation's leading Koi health veterinarian.

Turtle Info

Yellowfoot Tortoises - Incubation of Eggs - Alligator Snapping Turtles - Spotted Turtles - SlowCoach Turtle Pages - Housing Terrestrial Turtles - HATCHLINGS! - CTTC [Great!] -African Spur Thighs - Wood Turtles- - -

Amphibians Information

White's Tree Frogs -Amphibarium for your Frogs - -

Tropical Freshwater Fish Information

Hole in the Head Disorder - Oscars - Paradise Gourami - Ideal Community Tank - Sudden death in Cory Cats - Serpae Tetras - Plecostomus [Beware!] - Hydrogen Sulfide! - Discus Care - Kissing Gouramis - First Aid for Tropical Fish - Use of Formalin - Fish Health for Retailers - Setting Up The Tank - Discus Wasting Diseases - Undergravel Filters! -

Tropical Marine Fish Information

Stray Voltage - Copper resistant trematodes - Sick Tomato Clown- Freshwater Dips- Using Copper - Treating Reef Tank Fish -

Backyard Pets & Foundlings Information

Baby Rabbits

Lizard and Snake Information

Iguana [Green] Care

Miscellaneous Pocket Pets

Hermit Crab Care- Crayfish as pets - Bunnies - Cockatiels - - -

 Crawfish - Crawdads - Crayfish As Pets

Crawdads as pets

Crayfish should be cared for exactly as you would tropical fish, however, you do not need an aquarium heater. In fact, cooler water is preferable for their survival.

They prefer their tank to have fish in it, so they can apprehend and eat them. This is included on the one hand to make your more successful with the crayfish, but also to warn you that with crayfish in the tank, you shan't be successful with the fish.

Crayfish prefer to eat fish meat, canned shrimp, frozen blood worms, any kid of convenient and relatively "clean" meat. An example of an inappropriate food source would be fatty roast beef, even though it's meat. We kept ours alive for their natural adult lifespan with little more than Sanfransico Bay brands' "Prime Reef" served in chunks.

The ideal crayfish tank would have an inch of gravel on the bottom, some plastic and live plants such as Aponegeton bulbs, a daylength of 16 hours, using full spectrum lighting. The best bulb for full spectrum lighting is the CoraLife Trichromatic bulb. These are available for all the commercially available fluorescent fixtures.

An airstone would ideally be applied to the tank even if it has a good filtration system. The ideal filtration system for a crayfish tank would be a formidably sized sponge filter, perhaps the Tetra brand Bili(tm) or the Brilliant. Lustar V is also a good sponge filter.

Crayfish will hunt and eat by day, and night.

I set up my crayfish with caves to climb into but which permit me to see them sitting inside the cave. Simple slate pieces can be organized into a nice cave.

Crayfish of radically disparate sizes will fight and the smaller crayfish will be the loser. Even in matched sizes, as they mature, you may find a lost claw or other appendage due to skirmishes in the tank. Providing multiple caves and hideouts can be of assistance.

Good luck with the crayfish.

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Koivet.com
Koivet is a venerable, long lived koi and pond fish health site started by Dr Erik Johnson in 1994 as an off shoot of his first few websites at Mindspring.com. Now Koivet is full of information and movies and more.

Koi Beginner
Once you've leapfrogged through this tutorial you will have a solid, working concept of the Koi hobby and what it's all about. This is done just about exclusively with video and very little written material.

DrJohnson.com
More than koi health, this site spans all things animal, by a real veterinarian who shoots you straight.

Fishdoc.co.uk
By Frank Prince-Iles. A UK authority who put this site together some time ago and which is still relied upon as a major source of good Koi and pond fish information

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

PondCrisis.com
If you have a koi, pond or fish problem, this site takes you through twenty easy questions and at the end you know what you need to fix in your pond to create restored Koi health.

KoiCrisis.com
Koi Crisis has a symptoms chart by system you can choose the symptom by fish part, and resolve a lot of Koi pond fish problems or at least, learn about them understand how to remedy them.

Buying Domestic Koi
What does "Domestic" koi mean? Why would you buy that kind? How do you pick good and healthy ones? Who sells them and where do you find the best ones?

Buying Imported Koi
A Japanese or Israeli imported Koi is a beautiful thing. Why would you buy one of those? How do you identify a "good one"? And what kinds are there? Who would you buy one from?

Koi Filtration - Bead
With a little bit of management every week or so, you can have gin clear water in your koi or fish pond. Bead filtration is more than ten years old and defines the state of the art in Koi and pond fish ponds.

Koi Filtration - Natural
Requiring no weekly management but one big yearly overhaul, natural filtration is the easiest there is. Relying on live plants and organic processes, water quality is usually superb. Described and common mistakes illustrated, visit this site!

Koi Food & Feeding
What should you feed your koi? How many times per day? Is Corn really that bad in a Koi diet? What are the most common feeding mistakes people make? What's the best food?

Koi and Pond Hard Goods
So many places these days, are pure ripoffs. Finding a reputable dealer of koi and pond hard goods isn't as easy as you would think but there's ways to tell. The product line should be to-the-point and not contain shams. Who's doing it right? Visit this site!

Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

Books on Koi Diseases
You will be introduced to Dr Johnson's Koi Health book but also to other books he's reviewed.

Help With Koi Problems
Koi Community rates a variety of forums and message boards on ease of use, friendliness and quality of help. Not all boards are created equal. Not mincing words here.
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