# Are Cherries compatible with mexican dwarf crayfish



## Jsu

Im interested in having mexican dwarf crayfish. Can i put them in my cherries tank?


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## Will

I've seen a shrimp breeder do this without issues at all. She said obviously both must be fed, but otherwise no issues.

contact user bettabeats.


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## mrobson

i 2nd contacting bettabeats not only is she a breeder but shes got blue dwarf crays


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## bettaforu

You can safely keep Mexican Dwarf Crays with shrimp (however I would not recommend them with crystal shrimps) the reason being the crystals are a slower moving shrimp than say Cherry or Blues, Greens etc...and easier for a pair of claws to grab by chance.

Cherries/Greens/Yellows etc just swim over the top of the crays when they get in the way. Crayfish can only swim backwords not forward so a shrimp has plenty of time to get away from them.

My shrimp sometimes ride on the heads/backs of the crays just for fun! the cray doesn't even react, its funny to watch.

Your problem with CPO (mexican dwarfs) is that they are aggressive to other crays, so you will probably have them fight over territory in a smaller tank (under 10 gallons) in a bigger tank this isn't a problem as there is enough room for say 2 or 3.

I do carry the Blue Shufeldti crays, which are smaller and less aggressive with one another, they hide a bit more than the orange CPO does, but they are a good cleanup crew to have in a small tank and breed very fast!

CPO's take longer to breed and don't have a great survival success rate.
I am away out of town until Jan 22nd but if you are interested in Blue crays
give me a shout and I can set you up with some(1) etc.

Hope this helps.


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## Will

I said bettabeats.... but i totally meant to say Bettaforu!!!!


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## mrobson

Will said:


> I said bettabeats.... but i totally meant to say Bettaforu!!!!


lol yea me too


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## Jsu

thank You bettaforu

I just bought 2 CPO from big als oakville for 7.99. How do you sex them? i read that males are smaller and brighter orange compared to the females. Can you gave me a little more details about caring for them.

Thank you


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## bettaforu

Not much different from shrimps, they eat algae wafers (tiny piece each) every other day, don't feed every day! Some like the fancy guppy food (micro pellets) basically anything that will land on the floor of your aquarium as they are not surface eaters.

Change water 10% once a week, they don't need heaters, but if you have them in a heated tank I would not suggest higher than 78F as they are coldwater crays (but very tolerant of slightly warmer water)

Give them lots of hiding spots, driftwood is great, upside down small ceramic plant pots (the tiny ones) lay them on their sides and submerge them in the substrate so only a small area to crawl in and out of the hole in the other end.

Moss is also good as youngsters like to hang out in it, hide from bigger ones.

Males tend to have an extra pair of *L* shaped legs, females don't, and usually females are bigger. Color does not have anything to do with the sex, I have had the brightest males going!

I taught my CPOs to come to the front of the tank so I can see them (check on their health, lost claws etc) by only feeding the algae wafer at the front of the glass. I trained them to stand up and take it out of my fingers 
they are very smart and get the message real fast that you are the source of food....they will even get to begging you for something by standing up on their tails holding their claws up!

Cool little creatures...hope you enjoy them as much as I did.


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## Jsu

Thanks again bettaforu. I think it was a bad idea to put them in a planted tank. I dont see them anymore. Should i be cautious regarding dosing ferts?


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## bettaforu

You can have a nice planted tank without using fertilizers etc. I kept my shrimps/crays in nice 8-10 gallon tanks with soil, some driftwood, lace rock and floating plants as well as a few amazon swords (dwarf look nice and don't grow too tall)

With a good light overhead your plants will get all they need to grow! I had to continually keep downsizing my floating plants because they grew so well.

If you start to feed both shrimps and crays at the front of your tank they will soon learn to come to that spot all the time for food, and you will see them more often. 

I am not one to fuss with my tanks all the time...I prefer to leave things alone unless I notice a problem (shrimps dying etc) I check for ammonia and if all is fine I don't even do a water change.

I never vaccum my tanks, I use apple snails for cleanup crew, and I top up my tanks usually once a week add Amquel + water conditioner ( I have straight tap water PH 7.6) and maybe squeeze out my floss in my HOB filters, or add some new stuff depending on how bad the old one is. Other than that I leave my tanks alone and let nature balance things out. 

Pic of my nano shrimp tanks. As the plants grow they fill in a lot of the empty spaces, but you can still view the shrimps/crays very easily and they are pleasing to the eye.


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## AquaNekoMobile

bettaforu said:


> I taught my CPOs to come to the front of the tank so I can see them (check on their health, lost claws etc) by only feeding the algae wafer at the front of the glass. I trained them to stand up and take it out of my fingers
> they are very smart and get the message real fast that you are the source of food....they will even get to begging you for something by standing up on their tails holding their claws up!
> 
> Cool little creatures...hope you enjoy them as much as I did.


I -SO- want to see a video of this please. Haha... reminds of a line in a song 'hands up, baby hands up, give me your love baby, give me your love baby.....'


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## bettaforu

Yes that's exactly what it looks like when they do it  Of course whenever you see something like this the camera is always NEVER handy and by the time you get everything ready they have dissappeared on you....dang!


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## Scotmando

bettaforu said:


> Not much different from shrimps, they eat algae wafers (tiny piece each) every other day, don't feed every day! Some like the fancy guppy food (micro pellets) basically anything that will land on the floor of your aquarium as they are not surface eaters.
> 
> Change water 10% once a week, they don't need heaters, but if you have them in a heated tank I would not suggest higher than 78F as they are coldwater crays (but very tolerant of slightly warmer water)
> 
> Give them lots of hiding spots, driftwood is great, upside down small ceramic plant pots (the tiny ones) lay them on their sides and submerge them in the substrate so only a small area to crawl in and out of the hole in the other end.
> 
> Moss is also good as youngsters like to hang out in it, hide from bigger ones.
> 
> Males tend to have an extra pair of *L* shaped legs, females don't, and usually females are bigger. Color does not have anything to do with the sex, I have had the brightest males going!
> 
> I taught my CPOs to come to the front of the tank so I can see them (check on their health, lost claws etc) by only feeding the algae wafer at the front of the glass. I trained them to stand up and take it out of my fingers
> they are very smart and get the message real fast that you are the source of food....they will even get to begging you for something by standing up on their tails holding their claws up!
> 
> Cool little creatures...hope you enjoy them as much as I did.


I have a big white cray and where would i look for the 'extra' L-shape legs?

Any pics showing the difference?


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## bettaforu

here;s a link with photos this should help.
http://www.crayfishworld.com/sexy.htm


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## renownguyen

besides CRS, does anyone think Wood and Vampire Shrimps are a bad mix with CPOs? considering that theyre bigger and slower, can CPOs be a huge threat to them?


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## bettaforu

Not an expert on Wood or Vampire shrimps, but isn't one of them a filter feeder, which hangs around the top area of tanks? I seem to remember one of mine was always up near the intake. If so I would not think the CPO would bother them, as all shrimps can swim backwards and forwards, and crayfish cannot swim forwards. they can only crawl forwards.

The shrimps can easily get out of the way of a crayfish with no difficulty!

Crays tend to stay on the bottom of tanks looking for bits of food, whereas shrimps swim all over! I wouldn't worry too much about them co-habitating
shrimps know when a predator is in the area and take off quite quickly...even your slow moving ones.

I wouldn't put a CPO in with CRS only because these shrimps cost a lot more and sometimes cannot be replaced.


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## parrot5

Does the dwarf crayfish dig blackworms out of small gravel? I'm interested in them already but cleaning would be a bonus lol....


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## renownguyen

so i bought an orange dwarf to see how it would interact with my tank, and im happy to say that its been great! doesnt bother its neighbours or messes around with my moss. i used to keep a crayfish-only tank so this really took me by surprise. i plan on getting a few more soon. heres a pic of it beside a trio of vampires and an amano. if anything, the dwarf is intimidated by my vampires, wood/bamboo and amanos. as for the smaller guys like cherries/yellows with their babies, it ignores them with the occasional stance to scare them away.

thanks *bettaforu * for the advice!

my tank has recently begun a planaria-zone and some weird critter/tick that can only be seen in the moss-balls - not happy about that. something new to worry about.


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## bettaforu

glad you are enjoying your little friend. They are a delight to watch and as I mentioned not at all bothersome to most shrimp.

I think you have some daphnia/scuds in your tank....yes they can be a problem because they can breed very rapidly in a plant tank. They actually are good for the plants as they only eat the dead parts, so keep the plants doing well, but at the same time they can overrun your tank in no time at all.

I too am bothered with these, you get them when you buy plants at stores and they are in the plants, you just don't see them so you put the plants in the tank and OK now you have a new critter in there.

I know some people catch them and feed them to their big fish, but that's not an option for me, so I am stuck with them too.

Anyone got any ideas on how to get rid of them???
I tried the planaria trick that was posted on here and that worked pretty good, got rid of a lot of those ugly flat worms...yuckQ!


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## Kaiser.800

Daphnia wont live more than a week or two without green water to eat. Scud populations are limited by the amount of food in the tank. Usually they are harmless but if their population density gets too high they may attack freshly moulted inverts. Planaria populations are limited by the available food as well. There are several different species and are mostly harmless. You may find that your cpo will eat them.


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## Will

Scuds will eat healthy plant if there is not a constant source of another food. I'm having trouble with this.


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## Jsu

renownguyen - where did you get them and how much? im looking for 2 more CPO.

Bettaforu - other than the blue morph, do you have the orange ones for sale?


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## igor.kanshyn

*Yes, you can keep them together*

I have been always keeping CPO and shrimps.
Crayfish spend half of their time trying to catch a shrimp, but I've never seen them succeed


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## george

Brent has CPO. Just got a very nice pair on Sunday. I think he has them for ~$14.


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## renownguyen

Jsu said:


> renownguyen - where did you get them and how much? im looking for 2 more CPO.
> 
> Bettaforu - other than the blue morph, do you have the orange ones for sale?


big al's in 'sauga are usually stocked on them (vampires as well if anyone interested). they've been around all year, i was just hesitant. i think they were roughly $10. def picking a few more up. they were tiny when i bought it, but it's grown a lot in the past month and a half.


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## igor.kanshyn

renownguyen said:


> big al's in 'sauga are usually stocked on them (vampires as well if anyone interested). they've been around all year, i was just hesitant. i think they were roughly $10. def picking a few more up. they were tiny when i bought it, but it's grown a lot in the past month and a half.


Are you sure that they are not 'Electric Orange Crayfish'? Big Al's often has then. 
They are not dwarf and aggressive. They are usually sitting in a tank by their own


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## cichlidspiro

*starting a tank*

i have some cherry shrimp and waant to know what i can do with a 10-15g tank.
plants,(what gravel/sand to use) what pair of crayfish should i put in if i want to breed them

please tell me what plants live and grow nicely without C02 and which cray fish are easy to breed


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## renownguyen

igor.kanshyn said:


> Are you sure that they are not 'Electric Orange Crayfish'? Big Al's often has then.
> They are not dwarf and aggressive. They are usually sitting in a tank by their own


sorry but, whats the difference? i thought they were one in the same??


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## renownguyen

i misunderstood your comment, it is without a doubt a dwarf and not an electric orange crayfish. mine has been moulting a few times, and its size hasnt been growing as of late so i take it that this is roughly its max-size? in my pic, you can see the comparison between the dwarf and an adult female amano above it.

so yeah, a bit off topic but ive got scuds, worms and now some kind of mushroom/tube-looking things that are clutched on the glass. thinking about scrapping the tank and downsizing whilst im at it!


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## matti2uude

The mushroom/tube thing sounds like hydra.


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## randy

Hydras is not good in shrimp tanks if you have shrimplets. Get rid of them. Don't try to squash them, remove them in whole. If you cut one in halves you get two. And what's more interesting is they are immortal -- they don't die of old age. Anyway, I had the same problem a week ago, send my younger son (9 years old) on the look out and remove one when seen and it's under control, haven't seen one in a few days.


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## igor.kanshyn

renownguyen said:


> sorry but, whats the difference? i thought they were one in the same??


They are quite different.
My point was that those 'cheap' orange crayfish from BA stores were _electric crayfish_. They grow big.


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## razoredge

cichlidspiro said:


> i have some cherry shrimp and waant to know what i can do with a 10-15g tank.
> plants,(what gravel/sand to use) what pair of crayfish should i put in if i want to breed them
> 
> please tell me what plants live and grow nicely without C02 and which cray fish are easy to breed


I've kept cherry shrimp with an electric blue crayfish (5") and never had any problems. The cherry likes to hitch a ride on the back of the crayfish  and even swim through the claws. I've never seen the crayfish ever catch a shrimp.
I've given up on planting any plants as the crayfish trims the plants all the time.


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## razoredge

razoredge said:


> I've kept cherry shrimp with an electric blue crayfish (5") and never had any problems. The cherry likes to hitch a ride on the back of the crayfish  and even swim through the claws. I've never seen the crayfish ever catch a shrimp.
> I've given up on planting any plants as the crayfish trims the plants all the time.


I'm not good at sexing crays. Can anyone tell me what sex the following two attachments are. I've kept them separated since they appear to attack each other. Then I read this evening, that they tend to fight before they mate??


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## igor.kanshyn

george said:


> Brent has CPO. Just got a very nice pair on Sunday. I think he has them for ~$14.


Are they still available in Square One?


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## razoredge

igor.kanshyn said:


> Are they still available in Square One?


I was over at the Menagerie yesterday and they had mexican dwarf orange crayfish for $14 each. I guy ahead of me picked up 5 for $56. The guy working there was able to sex these little guys and he picked up 2M & 3F. I was tempted but wanted to do some additional research. I asked the buyer what he had in his tank and he mentioned he had amano shrimp and his last batch of MDOC had died due to a parasite and he wanted to give it another go.


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## matti2uude

igor.kanshyn said:


> Are they still available in Square One?


They had some yesterday when I was there.


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## Scotmando

razoredge said:


> I'm not good at sexing crays. Can anyone tell me what sex the following two attachments are. I've kept them separated since they appear to attack each other. Then I read this evening, that they tend to fight before they mate??


both look like males.


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## igor.kanshyn

matti2uude said:


> They had some yesterday when I was there.


Thank you. I was there and got several nice CPO.

I have a couple, but male doesn't do his job  I hope new males will be more active with that.


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## igor.kanshyn

razoredge said:


> I'm not good at sexing crays. Can anyone tell me what sex the following two attachments are. I've kept them separated since they appear to attack each other. Then I read this evening, that they tend to fight before they mate??


They are two males.


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## razoredge

igor.kanshyn said:


> They are two males.


Thanks Igor and Scotmando. Looks like I'll part ways with these guys and look into CPO a bit more. Since they are dwarf's, is there still any risks that they will attack my CRS/CBS?


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## Scotmando

I was at Menagerie this aft and they had a dozen or so CPO's and they looked good.


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## lilgup

How are cpos with snails? poso rabbit snails? 
also - can or would they climb out of a tank without a lid!

Thanks


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## igor.kanshyn

I keep CPO with small brotia snails (look here: 



), they are fine.
I haven't lost any CPO because it escaped a tank. I guess they are just too lazy to climb out


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