When breeding cancers, the question often arises as to what crustaceans eat. Feeding crayfish is a responsible process that requires a serious approach. After all, it is from what arthropods eat that their immunity, gustatory qualities and further development depend. You can’t feed the crayfish with any food. The article discloses all aspects related to feeding crayfish.
Feeding Features
As for feeding the crayfish contained in the aquarium, pool or specially created pond, it is important to know some rules and features:
- It is recommended to feed arthropods in the evening. Under natural conditions, individuals go in search of food when it gets dark.
- During breeding and molting periods, crayfish eat more, because their body begins to spend energy much faster.
- With an improper or unbalanced diet, cancers are prone to cannibalism, especially during molting. The place where the crayfish is kept should be free and spacious, with several shelters.
- The daily diet of young cancers is much higher than in adults.
- Crayfish are able to get out of the habitat in search of food. It is necessary to create conditions in which arthropods cannot get out.
- For females and males, various dietary regimes are made up. Rachikha (female) can consume food once every three days, while cancer needs food once every two days.
- After molting, you should not remove the remaining shell - later the cancer will eat it, because it is rich in large amounts of calcium, which contributes to the rapid recovery of the body.
Crayfish that eat properly and balanced, grow intensively, and less often try to get out of the habitat.
Types of feed
Crayfish are absolutely omnivorous creatures. They are fed both vegetable and meat feeds. In nature, they spend most of their time in shallow water in search of food, where they feed on a variety of shellfish, small fish, tadpoles, worms, and insects. From plant foods, crayfish prefer water lilies, elodea, and pest. The total share of plant foods in the diet of arthropods is up to 90%.
Cooking feed yourself
Homemade food for crayfish should be similar to the food they are used to consuming in their natural environment. Bloodworm, slices of squid, fish, shrimp or lean meat become a substitute for animal food.
When compiling a diet for crayfish, animal feed, crayfish should receive no more than twice a week. Many crayfish distributors claim that meat feeds are provocateurs of the arthropod's aggressive state.
From plant foods, crayfish are fed the following foods:
- zucchini;
- lettuce;
- cucumbers;
- Chinese cabbage;
- spinach
- carrots (contains keratin, which contributes to a significant increase in the color of cancers);
- hornwort (the plant should be in the habitat of the crayfish).
When planting plants in an aquarium or a created pond, you must be extremely careful, because very often they are treated with insecticides, which can cause mass death of arthropods.
Industrial feed
Fodders of industrial manufacture are produced in granular form of different sizes, come in the form of flakes or sticks.
Whichever option is preferred, the feed must meet the following criteria:
- do not pollute the water in the pond;
- provide a balanced diet;
- maintain the natural color of the shell;
- facilitate the process of changing the shell.
Specialty stores can offer feed types that are designed for special periods of crustacean life. For example, specialists often use feeds designed to stimulate the processes of reproduction or strengthen the immunity of young animals.
Feeding the young
Young animals are fed differently from adult crayfish. Feeding of young individuals is carried out by small daphnia, feed for fish fry, vinegar nematode, chopped tubule, artemia.
When feeding crayfish with small daphnia, it is preliminary recommended to scald it with boiling water, because live she is very mobile, because of which it will be difficult for small crustaceans to catch her.
Young cancers need more food than adults. For these reasons, they are in search of food day and night. They feed on detritus, a product of the natural decay of diverse organics. For example, in an aquarium, the water of which is constantly filtered, there is very little detritus.
To replace it, they often use fallen leaves of trees. It is better to give preference to dry leaves of oak, alder and beech - they will be an excellent source of valuable food, which not only contributes to the development of their digestive system, but also helps to get rid of parasites. The leaves in the aquarium crayfish eat very quickly, they need to be regularly reported.
For tabs in the aquarium, the use of freshly torn leaves is prohibited - they have the ability to release toxins into the water.
Feeding Adult Crayfish
Adults prefer minced meat from warm-blooded animals and fish, frogs and tadpoles. Before the molting period of crustaceans, it is advisable to feed with crushed small mollusks, greatly crushing bivalve shells.
They use kitchen garbage for feeding, giving arthropods meat trimmings, peel from vegetables, bread leftovers and more. If the waste is not completely fresh, it is pre-boiled.
Strongly decomposed food is unacceptable to use for feeding, because this can cause a massive disease of cancers.
Boiled grains, especially round ones (corn, peas) need to be kneaded before giving cancer, otherwise it will be difficult for him to grab them with claws. The food is laid out in the dark in small places. They give food in such a way that it is completely eaten. It is important to establish control over food intake by running a net on the bottom. Crayfish are moderately fed in ponds, especially if they are fed with animal feed.
With residual food, the owner needs to reduce its amount or not feed the crayfish at all for some time. When decaying food debris, the reservoir is contaminated, as a result of which arthropods suffer from various diseases that lead to their death.
Feeding begins in April with a diet of 0.5% of the live weight of the crayfish, increasing in the warm time after molting and during the period of intensive growth, so that the amount of feed is 2-2.5% of live weight. During the period of molting, they stop feeding the crayfish for several days. When it gets cold, arthropods are not fed or continue to give food during dense plantings at low rates. In winter, feeding crayfish should be careful: during this period, the need for food is small, but periodically they need to be fed.
A properly designed diet will ensure good arthropod health. It is important to responsibly approach the issue of feeding crayfish. It is unacceptable to use the first available food or feed of dubious quality for feeding crayfish.
Diet during molting
Molting for crayfish is a common thing. Crustaceans grow throughout life, because of the chitinous cover, this cannot be done, because it is hard. Cancer needs to be discarded regularly. During molting, arthropods lose their activity and spend most of the time in shelter. If instead of cancer only its shell was seen, do not be afraid, this is a natural process.
The chitinous cover is not removed - the cancer will eat it. After molting, young cancers need a lot of calcium, which helps to quickly restore a new coating. In the first stages of their lives, arthropods molt 5-6 times. After several years, molting occurs several times during the year. The process itself lasts only 2-3 minutes. The new cover is fully restored after 1-1.5 weeks.
Before molting, it is required to increase the volume or frequency of feeding by about 4 times. It is allowed to feed crayfish with specialized feed.
It is recommended to give food such products:
- pasta;
- shrimp
- carrot;
- fish
- porridge;
- Worms
- snails;
- meat;
- bloodworm;
- tubule
- coretre;
- daphnia;
- gammarus.
Arthropods will also like a diet consisting of cabbage, lettuce, peas, parsley, zucchini, nettle, spinach, frozen vegetables, tree leaves, and even dry food for aquarium fish.
Cancer Feeders
For feeding aquarium crayfish, various feeders are used. There are a wide variety of options for sale. But most often, feeders are made by their own efforts.
The simplest crayfish feeder is a small fixed platform that is made from any non-toxic plastic. Aquarium stores offer feeders that attract leaf-shaped and many other options.
How to feed crayfish when catching them?
The bait for catching crayfish is selected based on the season of the year. Plant foods are effective in spring and summer. In autumn and early winter, animal food is used to feed arthropods. To do this, use:
- meat trimmings;
- fish
- insides of fish and poultry;
- mollusks;
- Worms
- snails;
- frogs;
- meat.
Fish are laid out fresh or slightly spoiled. To enhance the smell, it is slightly wilted in the sun. Cancers like roach, crucian carp and bream. Of meat products, it is advisable to use poultry or meat carcasses. It is also put in a stale state. Shellfish, snails and frogs are caught in the same pond where they are going to catch crayfish. Worms are used extremely rarely in the absence of other options: they are placed in a piece of thin gauze, excluding their spread.
Of the vegetable baits, corn, dill, peas, black bread, makuku, and garlic are most effective. Peas and corn are boiled, steamed or canned. Crustaceans are “kept” for garlic flavor, due to which it is recommended to add it to other products.
When choosing a bait, take into account the time of year:
Season | What to feed? |
Summer | They are fed with a piece of liver, meat, chicken giblets. To enhance the smell, fish oil is added. |
Spring | Use vegetable bait or fish, which is previously cut along the ridge, turned out and left in the sun for spoilage. |
Winter and fall | The use of foul meat or peas is recommended. |
Habitat is also very important. For hunting in reservoirs with a muddy bottom, it is desirable to use decoys from spoiled fish. It is a common food for crayfish that live in similar conditions. Arthropods crawl into the "trap", not suspecting anything. If there is a lot of vegetation at the bottom, it is more efficient to use peas or corn.
For fishing in underwater caves or near the shore, lure is used with a strong smell of garlic or spoiled meat. In shallow water, experts advise using bait for worms, mollusks, and corn.
What does cancer eat in its natural environment?
Crayfish have an excellent sense of smell. Under natural conditions, they manage to quickly find rotten fish than fresh fish, because it has a pronounced smell as it decomposes. Fighting crayfish that fight for old fish carcasses are more common in rivers.
Their vision is developed no less well. Seeing something red, crayfish will definitely want to try it, considering the item a piece of meat.
Crayfish tend to eat algae rich in lime. They need it for the healthy growth of the shell, especially they need lime during the molting period when dropping the old “armor” and growing new ones.
Cancers need such algae:
- elodea;
- char species of plants;
- hornwort.
Only crayfish feed on these plants, because they contain lime, which gives arthropods rigidity, which they do not disdain. This is important to consider when feeding crayfish at home - it is advisable to increase the amount of lime in the crayfish feed.
In addition to plants, they feed on a variety of aquatic animals, different species of invertebrates, for example, daphnia or cyclops. They also feed on larvae, tadpoles, snails, and worms.
It is recommended to breed phyto- and zooplankton in a reservoir. Such a neighborhood crayfish are positive. These species serve as food not only for crayfish, but also for their prey.
Feeding crayfish is a responsible task, because the weight of the arthropod depends on proper nutrition and diet in the future, and further profit from their sale. If you follow the rules of feeding, you will be able to accelerate the process of growth and reproduction, contain active cancers.
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Ukraine. City: Kryvyi Rih
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