Dilemma - Dwarf Crayfish/Corydoras/ Betta

[BettaBabe94]

So two months ago I got a dwarf crayfish to keep all by himself in a 5 gallon tank.
Then a month ago I ended up taking in my mother-in-law’s female betta. The only tank I had that she could go in was the dwarf crayfish tank. I was worried at first, but the crayfish and the female betta seemed to coexist pretty well. 

This is where my dilemma starts. This female betta no longer wants to play nice (or so it seems). In the past he would raise his pinchers at her and she’d back off, but recently he is the one who ends up backing away and she’s always pestering him. I’m worried she’s going to hurt or even kill him.

My only other option is: I have a 20 gallon community tank, but it has panda corys. I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to have dwarf crayfish with corys. The fact that he submits to the betta makes me think maybe he’s mellow enough to put in my community tank, but I don’t know. 
 

I know the win win situation would be to give both of them their own tank, but I’m not able to do that at this moment so I’m wondering if anyone has any other suggestions. 
 

Forgot to write before: I have a different female betta in my community tank, that’s why I was wondering about moving the crayfish and not the betta with him 

Edited November 20, 2022 by BettaBabe94

[Levi_Aquatics]

Is putting the female betta in the the 20 gallon aquarium an option? What other fish do you have in there?

[BettaBabe94]

On 11/19/2022 at 11:49 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

Is putting the female betta in the the 20 gallon aquarium an option? What other fish do you have in there?

You beat me to it lol I was just going to add that I already have a female betta in my community tank. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

On 11/20/2022 at 12:08 AM, BettaBabe94 said:

You beat me to it lol I was just going to add that I already have a female betta in my community tank. 

Oh okay, that probably wouldn't work then. Maybe either switch the bettas to see if the other one will get along with the dwarf crayfish better, or try putting the crayfish in the 20 and just keep a close eye on it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/19/2022 at 8:35 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

So two months ago I got a dwarf crayfish to keep all by himself in a 5 gallon tank.
Then a month ago I ended up taking in my mother-in-law’s female betta. The only tank I had that she could go in was the dwarf crayfish tank. I was worried at first, but the crayfish and the female betta seemed to coexist pretty well. 

This is where my dilemma starts. This female betta no longer wants to play nice (or so it seems). In the past he would raise his pinchers at her and she’d back off, but recently he is the one who ends up backing away and she’s always pestering him. I’m worried she’s going to hurt or even kill him.

My only other option is: I have a 20 gallon community tank, but it has panda corys. I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to have dwarf crayfish with corys. The fact that he submits to the betta makes me think maybe he’s mellow enough to put in my community tank, but I don’t know. 

Alright so there's a few things going on here and the BIGGEST one is going to be compatibility in terms of predation, but the other one is temperature compatibility.

Betta wants a tank right around 80 degrees.

A Panda Corydoras I wouldn't put long term over 78, I keep mine in the 72-74 range optimally.

A Crayfish wants cooler temp.  For this random one I found they are listing ~65°F – 75°F but it will depend on what species you have.  They usually have heaters to keep them above 65, but they typically are kept say 70-78 degrees leaning towards cooler often.

Now.  A crayfish will grow and it will use it's claws to eat.  That means corydoras are a no go with that species.  Secondly a betta is a slow swimmer, often wants to lay somewhere and that's just inviting trouble. 

You can probably keep the betta and the crayfish in their own containers (be it a tub, or whatever) until you have a tank.  A crayfish, from what I have researched, will want to have a land section and a wet section with access to move back and forth.  Again, all about whatever species you have and their own care requirements. Other articles and videos I see don't include this. 

 

I can't speak to your own setup and your own space requirements, but just about everything mentioned I would try to give is a 20L or 20H aquarium if possible.  If you have room, give the betta a 10-15G aquarium and that should be sufficient for the one fish with plants and so forth.  It's not a ton of weight, but might be small enough where you can keep them in tubs / buckets now, and eventually give them a tank when space and sales make sense.  Sterilite tubs are commonly accepted as safe for QT / Animals in a bind.  I always try to find something labelled as "food safe" when I need to find something.  I used 30G Sterilite tubs (grey with green handles) we found at target.

[BettaBabe94]

@nabokovfan87I just want to clarify one thing. I have a dwarf crayfish. My Nerite snail is probably bigger than this thing.
From what I’ve read the regular ones are super aggressive and get way bigger. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/19/2022 at 10:21 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

@nabokovfan87I just want to clarify one thing. I have a dwarf crayfish. My Nerite snail is probably bigger than this thing.
From what I’ve read the regular ones are super aggressive and get way bigger. 

Understood.  And it's likely very young.  I can't say how bit it'll get, but it might get a much different mood when it's bigger!  That's all.

The dwarf crayfish we had was about 3 inches and it passed when it was about 5-6. 

EDIT:  Yours sounds like a Cambarellus species.  The one we had I think was a Procambarus species.

Edited November 20, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[BettaBabe94]

On 11/20/2022 at 1:26 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

EDIT:  Yours sounds like a Cambarellus species.  The one we had I think was a Procambarus species.

He’s a CPO - Dwarf Mexican Crayfish 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/20/2022 at 10:44 AM, BettaBabe94 said:

Dwarf Mexican Crayfish

This seems like a well written guide.

https://fishtankadvisor.com/mexican-dwarf-crayfish/#Natural_Habitat

Hopefully that helps. A lot of the guides will recommend livebearers and top level aquarium fish.  Temps are going to be one issue though, as mentioned.

[Comradovich]

While I haven't kept CPOs, I have kept C. Shufeldtii, which is the next size down. In my experience, they were reasonably fine with a community tank so long as your fish left their hiding spot alone. If a pleco also wanted that cave... well, there was an angry little crayfish marching around the rest of the tank and nipping fins. Didn't do so hot with Pygmy Corys, so I'm iffy on your pandas. The corys are smart enough to get out of the way, and the cray's not real aggressive if you feed it and the fish aren't intruding. What I'm more worried about is that your pandas get around the same size as your CPO. There's also a gang of them, and they eat small crustaceans in the wild. (Daphnia, scuds). Corys are also inquisitive and food oriented, so his territory is going to get explored constantly by hungry little fish. The dwarf crays seem to have a pretty short turn around from "I'm REAL big" to "And you're obviously here to eat me, yikes".

Bottom line: I'd be less worried about him nipping their fins than them deciding on a lobster dinner and each taking a leg.

[NOLANANO]

On 11/19/2022 at 10:35 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

So two months ago I got a dwarf crayfish to keep all by himself in a 5 gallon tank.
Then a month ago I ended up taking in my mother-in-law’s female betta. The only tank I had that she could go in was the dwarf crayfish tank. I was worried at first, but the crayfish and the female betta seemed to coexist pretty well. 

This is where my dilemma starts. This female betta no longer wants to play nice (or so it seems). In the past he would raise his pinchers at her and she’d back off, but recently he is the one who ends up backing away and she’s always pestering him. I’m worried she’s going to hurt or even kill him.

My only other option is: I have a 20 gallon community tank, but it has panda corys. I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to have dwarf crayfish with corys. The fact that he submits to the betta makes me think maybe he’s mellow enough to put in my community tank, but I don’t know. 
 

I know the win win situation would be to give both of them their own tank, but I’m not able to do that at this moment so I’m wondering if anyone has any other suggestions. 
 

Forgot to write before: I have a different female betta in my community tank, that’s why I was wondering about moving the crayfish and not the betta with him 

I had 2 CPOs with 5 panda cories and 8 Pygmy cories in a 75G and it worked out great. The crawfish have since died but they all coexisted without issue for a year. They even ate sinking wafers together. I only saw the crawfish go after fish a couple of times but they weren’t quick enough to catch any healthy fish. 

Edited November 21, 2022 by NOLANANO

[BettaBabe94]

@Comradovich I’m thinking about rescaping and adding more plants to maybe help the crayfish get away from the betta, instead of moving him into the community tank.

[NOLANANO]

On 11/22/2022 at 1:21 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

@Comradovich I’m thinking about rescaping and adding more plants to maybe help the crayfish get away from the betta, instead of moving him into the community tank.

Thats definitely a viable option. Make sure to add plenty of "Overhangs" that the CPO can back into and be protected from behind and above. The more hiding places the better. If you only have one or a few spread out, he won't feel comfortable moving around and you won't ever see him.

[Comradovich]

@BettaBabe94So, I'm looking at the 5.5 gallon next to my computer and thinking: "How would I scape this to deal with your problem?" Thankfully, the 20 G "messy jungle" planted is just on the other side of the computer.

1. Take some java fern and attach it to a few small pieces of driftwood. Pick wood you expect will hang over things a bit, like @NOLANANOsuggested above.

2. Something like a red melon sword, (smaller plant with broad leaves to hide under). Or also a sea of crypts. The leaves will let the crayfish move around the tank between covered spaces. It'll also break up the betta's line of sight. Bettas seem drawn to stem plants or taller pieces, things with leaves near the surface that let them nap. Put in something like that if you don't already have one and maybe she'll calm down. If the top water is more to her liking, maybe she'll be less possessive over the bottom.

3. Rock piles should work wonders. Dwarf Crays like tunneling under these. Plus side is that you can usually find some large enough just poking around in the yard. You don't need very large stones, just a few clustered together. Boil or H2O2 soak these.