So my girlfriend is in the mists of moving and is giving me her "red lobster" as she's doesn't want to put it through the stress of dismantling its habitat, moving it, resetting up the tank, cycling, etc... So she's just giving it to me as I already have an aquarium set up that it can move right into.
Now the setup is a 10 gallon aquarium with a cork bark background, glass top, four clay pots as caves, a canister filter rated for 35gallons, and a good 3-4inches of substrate. The substrate is a mix of stuff I had built up over the years in on of my other setups that is no longer in use and consists of unscented clay cat litter, play sand, gravel, decorative red slate, and fluorite gravel and it looks quite natural and I've never had a problem with it.
Now since I have the substrate so deep I was worried about anaerobic growth. Is there anything that could aerate the substrate that I could put in there or will the crayfish mix it up enough itself? I know MTS could do the deal but I've also hear horror stories of them destroying canister filters. and I imagine rabbit snails could just quickly become slow easy to catch meals for a crayfish.
I realize crayfish can and may prey on other tank inhabitants and given its only 10 gallons that's not a lot of stocking availability. But I was wondering if anything can be put in there and possibly breed at a rate where they won't exterminated outright but the crayfish. How about ramshorn snails or feeder guppies? I figure they could help clean up after the crayfish as they're messy eaters.
Also one last question. I've tired looking and have gotten mixed results but which species is the one normally sold as "red lobsters". I imagine it's either clarkii or alleni?
Now the setup is a 10 gallon aquarium with a cork bark background, glass top, four clay pots as caves, a canister filter rated for 35gallons, and a good 3-4inches of substrate. The substrate is a mix of stuff I had built up over the years in on of my other setups that is no longer in use and consists of unscented clay cat litter, play sand, gravel, decorative red slate, and fluorite gravel and it looks quite natural and I've never had a problem with it.
Now since I have the substrate so deep I was worried about anaerobic growth. Is there anything that could aerate the substrate that I could put in there or will the crayfish mix it up enough itself? I know MTS could do the deal but I've also hear horror stories of them destroying canister filters. and I imagine rabbit snails could just quickly become slow easy to catch meals for a crayfish.
I realize crayfish can and may prey on other tank inhabitants and given its only 10 gallons that's not a lot of stocking availability. But I was wondering if anything can be put in there and possibly breed at a rate where they won't exterminated outright but the crayfish. How about ramshorn snails or feeder guppies? I figure they could help clean up after the crayfish as they're messy eaters.
Also one last question. I've tired looking and have gotten mixed results but which species is the one normally sold as "red lobsters". I imagine it's either clarkii or alleni?
