Can Crayfish Live Together in the Same Tank?

If you are asking yourself, "can crayfish live together?" Well, the answer is going to be a big fat, "it depends."

There are so many factors that come into play with pet crayfish. Trust me, I've owned several crayfish over the past few years. I've owned two electric blue crayfish and one albino crayfish that probably could have killed a small dog.

First off, how big of a tank are you planning on using to keep your crayfish in? If you plan on using a ten gallon fish tank for more than one crayfish, personally I'd say that's not a good decision. One of my crayfish fought to the death with another one of my crayfish while living in a ten gallon tank. Yes, they got along perfectly for a while, but eventually it came to claws, and these guys went at it, hard.

I remember walking in from work one day to see that my blue crayfish had been eaten by my albino crayfish. There were tiny blue pieces of my crayfish throughout the tank. It was not pretty, but that's nature sometimes.

Personally, if you plan on having more than one crayfish, I'd recommend at least a twenty gallon fish tank with lots of hiding spaces, or hideouts. Crayfish like being able to hide out. And being able to hide out is especially important when they are molting. Because when they molt, they become weak and are more susceptible to attacks by both crayfish and other fish.

I'd also recommended keeping your crayfish fed. Now, I do not mean in any way to over-feed your crayfish. Crayfish already dirty the tank up enough as it is and over-feeding them will only make it worse. So do not overfeed these little guys.

Just remember, crayfish are scavengers and they are extremely aggressive. They are omnivores. They love to eat anything they can get their claws on. Because of their nature, there's pretty much no guarantee that they will not catch and eat another crayfish in your tank. Having said that, try to find fish that are aggressive, swim near the top of the tank and/or swim fast if you are looking for tank mates for your crayfish. These types of fish will have the best opportunity at surviving.