# Balanced cray diet



## fubujubu (Jan 10, 2011)

So iv herd people say and iv seen all over the internet that crays eat everything that can get their claws on and they need a balanced diet. Lots of people say any veggies in your fridge will basically work among other things.

Iv been trying for a while now to get my cray to eat other foods that I drop in. The only things hes eating are the feeder fish that he catches from time to time and suprisingly i found he loves algea disks since when I drop them he in tried to catch them before they hit the bottem of the tank before taking it back into the hide-away.

Iv tried carrots, leatuce, cucomberand a few others but he wants nothing to do with them and they end up going bad in my tank. Which I find odd since I see alot of people getting upset due to their crays eating all their plants.

If you guys have any tips on how I can get him to eat other foods or other ways for him to get the nutrients he needs itd be awsome


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

I just feed mine pellets and my crays never eat my plants just move them around.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Depends on the type of crays. I had both Blue Alleni's (5 inch long) and I taught them to take the algae wafer out of my fingers without hurting me...they would stand on their hind legs and reach up for it...

They were fussy....I didn't get them to eat anything else either. The small Dwarf Orange crays will eat any pellet or algae wafer you put in the tank...they learn the fast way to grab whatever is going before someone else gets it.

Ive seen they doing a tug of war with my tiger shrimps over a pellet! 

Just keep feeding the crays some different wafers, you get ones that are meaty and ones that are veggie...alternate them, they will be just fine.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

I believe they need food with bigger protein part, they should not be happy about vegetables 

My crayfish are CPO, small ones. The best thing they eat is a NLS fish food target for Cichlids.
They are almost not interested in algae discs.


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## fubujubu (Jan 10, 2011)

Not intrested at all?.. weird. Anything disk shaped my guy goes for instantly, just last night after I turned the lights off I dropped one disk in which the feeders chased to the bottem, then noticed his little entenna thingys pop out from behind a rock... dropped a second one and he launched himself at it caught the bloody disk, took it to his cave dropped it then launched himself at the feeders. Ended up with one of them and went back to the cave and ate both... no wonder hes gotten so big so fast.

I ended up getting a few other sink-able foods and he seems to enjoy them. woulda been nice tho to see him carry around a mini carrot >.>


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## Canadiancray (Apr 27, 2006)

Crayfish are detrivores. As such in the wild they come across and eat mostly plant material and water insects. Diets too high in protein can actually harm the crayfish and cause problems when molting. 

Every species of crayfish I have ever kept (and that would be pretty much all of them that can legally be kept) love frozen peas, sinking trout pellets and the occasional raw egg shell for calcium, zuchini is also another cray favorite.


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## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

^I agree frozen peas work great and they sink nicely

my crays don't touch my plants though, but maybe I don't really notice since my tank is pretty heavily planted and there are plenty of dead leaves everywhere


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

What frozen peas do you use?
Should not it be super-organic?


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## Canadiancray (Apr 27, 2006)

Why would they need that? You have to remember that in the wild they eat mostly rotting material.

Any frozen peas will do.


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