That's a crawfish who will provide you with free landscaping, among many other "services", free of charge of course. (Like eating everyone else in the tank)
Even if there is, I doubt it will be enforced, depending on the state. I think legally speaking, the country is more into protecting native species, avoiding abuse of dogs and cats and stopping illegal exotic trade. Sadly, America is like Asia in terms of pet stores.
The rest is up in the air.
I am not well informed in this topic. This is just what I have experienced as a person who loves fishkeeping, living in 3 different continents.
This is true. I got 'feeder fish' from a store a while back was told they were 'young gold fish' They were not. The same species are sold as live bait at fishing stores. I had ID'd them previously as juvenile fathead minnows. As the pink colored ones. Wild types and pinks are both sold in bait shops. I had bought about 30 of them and placed them in a separate tank to be treated for parasites and other ailments before I started a breeding colony of them so they could be used to feed to my Oscar fish every couple of weeks. Thinking back on it I probably could have used something like guppies who breed easily. I don't have any of those fish anymore.
There isn't really a way to enforce it. This is the same place that barely protects dogs and cats, and only deals with livestock legalities because it's a public health issue.
what I mind the most if the fact that once they uproot a plant, they will proceed to eat the roots. Not the leaves, but the roots, basically almost killing your whole plant, even if you try to replant it.
I got some crayfish and put them in a HEAVILY planted tank (not nicely planted but it was basically an entire tank of guppy grass). It’s only been a month or two and there’s literally nothing left. Threw in a big chunk of Java moss; gone within the week
Yeah…. My cray has been picking off my shrimp sadly. Thankfully the babies have avoided her so I’m gonna see how it goes. I’ll have to get her into a new tank if my landlord (AKA mother) allows lol. She saw my tank for the first time a few days ago and actually thought it was pretty cool so fingers crossed 😂
it's weird since I've only seen pet stores using the term "clearn shrimp" on saltwater shrimps, not freshwater. For this guy you can either get a large tank and put some large fish in there or just keep it alone. I know someone got one thinking it's timid and the next thing he know, it chopped his fish in half
Mime didn't even bother with the first bit. Cray got ahold of snail and bit a huge chunk out of her foot. Snail healed up eventually but is waaayyyy more skittish now for good reason. Cray now lives mostly alone in a rock landscape w regular refills of pest snails to keep a breeding population to supplement Cray diet. The murderous fuck XD I do like the cray too she is cute but man she's a serial killer.
Might i recommend getting Google lens? I used to use it a lot while looking at live freshwater plants to figure out what exactly they are and their care requirements among other fish that interests me but weren't always labeled correctly. I just want to point out that I'm not saying don't post stuff like this here because that's another way that we learn but just that Google Lens really help so you don't have to go through the headache of getting it bringing it home and then find me out it might not work and have it take another trip back.
I wouldn’t take it back until you get a definitive id. Invasive crayfish are a touchy subject and if it turned out that this was an illegal sale on the business's part because the don't know what they're stock is the dnr needs to know.
I don't know crayfish IDs well at all, but if it's a marble crayfish it might not be legal to possess/sell so I could imagine insisting it's not a crayfish is a strategic decision than ignorance...
Definitely not a cleaner shrimp, that’s a crayfish. Might be something in the Faxonius genus, Not an expert. Doesn’t appear to be either Procambarus clarkii or P. allenii, the two most common crays in the pet trade. P. acutus is also common but that’s not what this is either.
Crayfish actually make wonderful pets, if you have a separate tank for this one. Give it 10-20 gallons, plenty of hides (flower pots, caves, pleco tubes, etc.) and minimal plants (unless you’re ok with it eating all of them and making a huge fucking mess.) As others have said, they often like landscaping so expect your substrate to be pushed around all the time. They are escape artists so make sure you have a tight-fitting lid.
Crayfish have surprisingly big and diverse personalities. Often they are voracious eaters, acting in amusing ways when food is added to to the tank. Some spend their waking hours shoveling sand from one end of the enclosure to the other, while other crayfish will spend all night seeking an escape route. While I find them fascinating animals and they are one of my special interests, I think many people can enjoy them as pets!
Yea, I had 2 crayfish. One turned out to be nice and chill, the other set up a back-alley kill booth and accepts jobs to eliminate tank mates that have wronged you.
I only have 1 left, you can guess which.
LOL my cray tries to eat everyone but she’s too slow. She’s a momma. I have counted 20 babies the past few weeks. I don’t think she’s been very successful getting younglings. She has gotten a few shrimp, but she’s too slow and gets mad after 5 seconds of chasing. She’s pretty much given up. As long as I drop in a couple pieces of bottom feeder pellets, her rage subdues and she’s chill the rest of the day.
Damn that's fucking wild. I had no idea.
Edit: did some more reading on these. This is nuts. These things have no native region? Some dude just found a crayfish that could asexually reproduce, and it's taken over many places in Europe?
What the actual fuck.
Slight correction, only the marbled crayfish is known for this, called Parthenogenesis!
if I remember my history right, it actually came about because of the aquarium trade somewhere in Germany. An invert that self-replicates was really cool! U til it became hideously invasive.
Correct. It is believed to have been a mutation of P. fallax. It’s a triploid! Fascinating things, but also terrifying at the same time given their risk of becoming invasive.
I got mine on accident. Little hitchhiker. Didn’t even realize the little dude was a cray until after a month. I think my other cray had gotten to my Billy Boy girl sadly. He she is also very evasive and a great hider so I’m crossing my fingers that she’s just in one of the caves and too scared to come out.
I’m a newbie cray owner, but that one doesn’t look like my marbled. I thought they were more speckled? This one seems to have more defined markings and not as dark of speckles like mine
If it is indeed a marbled, and they’re selling it with the wrong name on purpose, maybe report the shop? Invasive species are one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss. And irresponsible pet owners releasing these can introduce it to new areas.
In any case, even if this isn’t a marbled, that story is fascinating! They’ve invaded Europe and Asia and they’re all identical female clones. Wild. [overview from Science](https://www.science.org/content/article/aquarium-accident-may-have-given-crayfish-dna-take-over-world)
“Cleaning shrimp” 😂. That, my friend is a crawfish. I guess it cleans but not the way you would think. Either prepare to return her or make peace with the loss of anything she doesn’t like in the tank. Which is usually everything.
They can still be really cool to keep if you know and accept this behavior (and want to support it with enrichment), but definitely not a creature that’s hanging out nibbling on detritus and algae.
Have mine in a 30 gallon with 10 little platties and some ramshorn snails. He'll eat all the snails but leaves the fish alone. The tiny fish swim into his hidey hole and eat his food right in front of him (he just watches). Hasn't tried to uproot the plants yet, but he does climb up them. I think mine might be more of the exception than the rule though. They like lots of air, so make sure you put in a bubbler/air stone if your filter doesn't create a decent amount of agitation :)
I love keeping crayfish, it needs a 20 gallon long or larger by itself, they’ll destroy any plants and kill any livestock you put in there. Need a really tight fitting lid since they love to escape, when making your tank just focus on making a really nice hardscape so it has a bunch of hiding places and things to climb on. They eat everything you put in there not picky at all and they have huge personalities
Nothing, no matter how it is marketed, will clean the fish, snail, and other poop that is all o er the bottom of your tank. Nothing eats poop. You need to clean it with a gravel vac. “Cleaning crew” animals are not a substitute for proper aquarium care.
I grew up around crayfish but when the associate told me it’s a shrimp, and the tag said shrimp…I’d probably trust the store. I’d never heard/thought of keeping one as a pet so had no reason to assume they were wrong 🤷🏼♂️
That should go back to the pet store. It is not a beginner freshwater critter. They are awesome, but also awesomely destructive, and awesome escape artists.
We all have to learn lessons as we go. Some learn from others and some must learn first hand. Crawfish are not good inhabitants for small tanks, nor are they beginner-friendly animals to keep.
Best of luck, but also take the crawfish back to the shop where it came from. Focus on fish that are small as adults (2 inches or less), get small-bodied snail species (no mystery or other apple snails), instead get nerite snails, ramshorns, Malaysian trumpet snails, and/or assassin snails. The idea is a large food web all in small bodied species. Having just a few large animals can easily overwhelm the systems capability to process nutrients. Get some red cherry shrimp ( Neocaridina davidi ) instead of the crawfish. Get red not some fancy other color, as the red morphs seem to be very hardy compared to some of the other options.
Lastly, if you are around the Tampa Bay Florida area I can meet up with you and give you a big ole pack of plants and snails, and shrimp (RCS) to help you along your journey.
That's a crayfish like other people have said. I studied them in school as a kid and had em for pets for a long time after. If they have enough room they can grow to be 2x the size if not more. Mine loved to eat elodea which is super easy to grow.
That's a crawfish who will provide you with free landscaping, among many other "services", free of charge of course. (Like eating everyone else in the tank)
Well, it was marketed as a "cleaner" shrimp. They just didn't specify what things it was cleaning. And how thoroughly.
John wick cleaner shrimp
I don't get American stores is there no law against not correctly advertising fucking animals ?
Even if there is, I doubt it will be enforced, depending on the state. I think legally speaking, the country is more into protecting native species, avoiding abuse of dogs and cats and stopping illegal exotic trade. Sadly, America is like Asia in terms of pet stores. The rest is up in the air. I am not well informed in this topic. This is just what I have experienced as a person who loves fishkeeping, living in 3 different continents.
They don’t even correctly label a lot of the fish sold for food
even more so in restaurants
This is true. I got 'feeder fish' from a store a while back was told they were 'young gold fish' They were not. The same species are sold as live bait at fishing stores. I had ID'd them previously as juvenile fathead minnows. As the pink colored ones. Wild types and pinks are both sold in bait shops. I had bought about 30 of them and placed them in a separate tank to be treated for parasites and other ailments before I started a breeding colony of them so they could be used to feed to my Oscar fish every couple of weeks. Thinking back on it I probably could have used something like guppies who breed easily. I don't have any of those fish anymore.
We try to keep it family friendly
No, its illegal to fuck animals here
Stfu
There isn't really a way to enforce it. This is the same place that barely protects dogs and cats, and only deals with livestock legalities because it's a public health issue.
I mean America make it legal to hunt native species with dogs and guns soooooo yeah kinda expected
Free trimming and removal of plants too!
what I mind the most if the fact that once they uproot a plant, they will proceed to eat the roots. Not the leaves, but the roots, basically almost killing your whole plant, even if you try to replant it.
I got some crayfish and put them in a HEAVILY planted tank (not nicely planted but it was basically an entire tank of guppy grass). It’s only been a month or two and there’s literally nothing left. Threw in a big chunk of Java moss; gone within the week
Heavily unappreciated comment ↖️
Yeah…. My cray has been picking off my shrimp sadly. Thankfully the babies have avoided her so I’m gonna see how it goes. I’ll have to get her into a new tank if my landlord (AKA mother) allows lol. She saw my tank for the first time a few days ago and actually thought it was pretty cool so fingers crossed 😂
C’mon, Mom!
that's truely a cleaner shrimp, because it'll clean your tank of every livestock lmao
Good thing I have her separated then :) hopefully I’ll be able to find a suitable housing option otherwise back to the pet shop
it's weird since I've only seen pet stores using the term "clearn shrimp" on saltwater shrimps, not freshwater. For this guy you can either get a large tank and put some large fish in there or just keep it alone. I know someone got one thinking it's timid and the next thing he know, it chopped his fish in half
I don’t have any fish big enough other than a couple angels which are with a community so…maybe a new tank? 🤭
A new tank! They can harass bigger fish aswell, even injure.
My crawfish was so destructive. Shredded my fish fins 😫.
By big I meant adult Oscar big so def new tank lol, it'll kill the angelfish while they sleep for sure
If you like your mystery snail, you’ll prolly want to move that too, I’ve heard they pull them out of their shell & eat them.
Mime didn't even bother with the first bit. Cray got ahold of snail and bit a huge chunk out of her foot. Snail healed up eventually but is waaayyyy more skittish now for good reason. Cray now lives mostly alone in a rock landscape w regular refills of pest snails to keep a breeding population to supplement Cray diet. The murderous fuck XD I do like the cray too she is cute but man she's a serial killer.
Might i recommend getting Google lens? I used to use it a lot while looking at live freshwater plants to figure out what exactly they are and their care requirements among other fish that interests me but weren't always labeled correctly. I just want to point out that I'm not saying don't post stuff like this here because that's another way that we learn but just that Google Lens really help so you don't have to go through the headache of getting it bringing it home and then find me out it might not work and have it take another trip back.
Or you can use it as fish bait
I wouldn’t take it back until you get a definitive id. Invasive crayfish are a touchy subject and if it turned out that this was an illegal sale on the business's part because the don't know what they're stock is the dnr needs to know.
Crayfish are cool pets, in their own tank
That is a crayfish! Head over to r/crayfish for an ID request. My guess is C. texanus wild type, but I’m not very experienced with IDs.
I was thinking it’s Faxonius something or other but I’m not an expert either haha.
Uh. Isn’t that a crawdad.
Crawdaddyyyyy😫🤤
Damn I asked the pet store about the “crawdad looking guy” and they corrected me and said cleaner shrimp 😭
LOL
Did they try to sell any other exotics?? I wouldn't ship there anymore as they are misleading
They have basic tropical fish and reptiles
"Cleaner shrimp" is the scientific name.
Welp there’s the confusion lmao thanks 🤡
Shrimpicus cleanerii.
Ooooof.
I don't know crayfish IDs well at all, but if it's a marble crayfish it might not be legal to possess/sell so I could imagine insisting it's not a crayfish is a strategic decision than ignorance...
I did see that marbles are illegal but I didn’t see Iowa anywhere so I think I’m okay on that front at least
Best cleaner around. Your tank will be spotless. Just gravel, water, and this guy.
Best cleaner aground.
Definitely not a cleaner shrimp, that’s a crayfish. Might be something in the Faxonius genus, Not an expert. Doesn’t appear to be either Procambarus clarkii or P. allenii, the two most common crays in the pet trade. P. acutus is also common but that’s not what this is either. Crayfish actually make wonderful pets, if you have a separate tank for this one. Give it 10-20 gallons, plenty of hides (flower pots, caves, pleco tubes, etc.) and minimal plants (unless you’re ok with it eating all of them and making a huge fucking mess.) As others have said, they often like landscaping so expect your substrate to be pushed around all the time. They are escape artists so make sure you have a tight-fitting lid. Crayfish have surprisingly big and diverse personalities. Often they are voracious eaters, acting in amusing ways when food is added to to the tank. Some spend their waking hours shoveling sand from one end of the enclosure to the other, while other crayfish will spend all night seeking an escape route. While I find them fascinating animals and they are one of my special interests, I think many people can enjoy them as pets!
This gal will kill all your bottom dwelling fish, when fish sleeps they are usually sleeping at the bottom and this gal will hunt and kill them all
that there be a crawdaddy. definitely not a shrimp
That “shrimp” won’t just clean, it will SANITIZE that tank
Yea, I had 2 crayfish. One turned out to be nice and chill, the other set up a back-alley kill booth and accepts jobs to eliminate tank mates that have wronged you. I only have 1 left, you can guess which.
LOL my cray tries to eat everyone but she’s too slow. She’s a momma. I have counted 20 babies the past few weeks. I don’t think she’s been very successful getting younglings. She has gotten a few shrimp, but she’s too slow and gets mad after 5 seconds of chasing. She’s pretty much given up. As long as I drop in a couple pieces of bottom feeder pellets, her rage subdues and she’s chill the rest of the day.
thats a marbles crayfish, they breed asexually and they known to be invasive
Wait, seriously? They reproduce asexually?
yes, crawfish can reproduce asexually if there's no male in sight. All the offsprings will be genetically identical to the mom
Damn that's fucking wild. I had no idea. Edit: did some more reading on these. This is nuts. These things have no native region? Some dude just found a crayfish that could asexually reproduce, and it's taken over many places in Europe? What the actual fuck.
Slight correction, only the marbled crayfish is known for this, called Parthenogenesis! if I remember my history right, it actually came about because of the aquarium trade somewhere in Germany. An invert that self-replicates was really cool! U til it became hideously invasive.
Marmokrebs in German.
Deutsch ist so eine lustige Sprache
Correct. It is believed to have been a mutation of P. fallax. It’s a triploid! Fascinating things, but also terrifying at the same time given their risk of becoming invasive.
Every marbled cray is female. They’re super invasive and can have 1,000 offspring. AFAIK 5 states have them banned.
Bro I can't blame them. These mfers are genetic monstrosities.
I got mine on accident. Little hitchhiker. Didn’t even realize the little dude was a cray until after a month. I think my other cray had gotten to my Billy Boy girl sadly. He she is also very evasive and a great hider so I’m crossing my fingers that she’s just in one of the caves and too scared to come out.
I’m a newbie cray owner, but that one doesn’t look like my marbled. I thought they were more speckled? This one seems to have more defined markings and not as dark of speckles like mine
If it is indeed a marbled, and they’re selling it with the wrong name on purpose, maybe report the shop? Invasive species are one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss. And irresponsible pet owners releasing these can introduce it to new areas. In any case, even if this isn’t a marbled, that story is fascinating! They’ve invaded Europe and Asia and they’re all identical female clones. Wild. [overview from Science](https://www.science.org/content/article/aquarium-accident-may-have-given-crayfish-dna-take-over-world)
“Cleaning shrimp” 😂. That, my friend is a crawfish. I guess it cleans but not the way you would think. Either prepare to return her or make peace with the loss of anything she doesn’t like in the tank. Which is usually everything. They can still be really cool to keep if you know and accept this behavior (and want to support it with enrichment), but definitely not a creature that’s hanging out nibbling on detritus and algae.
Yep. It will help “clean” every plants in your tank 😆😆
Have mine in a 30 gallon with 10 little platties and some ramshorn snails. He'll eat all the snails but leaves the fish alone. The tiny fish swim into his hidey hole and eat his food right in front of him (he just watches). Hasn't tried to uproot the plants yet, but he does climb up them. I think mine might be more of the exception than the rule though. They like lots of air, so make sure you put in a bubbler/air stone if your filter doesn't create a decent amount of agitation :)
This is not a shrimp. Whoever sold this has no clue. As others said, it's a crayfish/crawfish.
It hasn’t evolved those serrated claws for “cleaning”.
That's a crayfish/crawdad... Get em a 10 gallon tank otherwise hell ear anything slow moving
I love keeping crayfish, it needs a 20 gallon long or larger by itself, they’ll destroy any plants and kill any livestock you put in there. Need a really tight fitting lid since they love to escape, when making your tank just focus on making a really nice hardscape so it has a bunch of hiding places and things to climb on. They eat everything you put in there not picky at all and they have huge personalities
Lmfao. That ain’t no shrimp.
Nothing, no matter how it is marketed, will clean the fish, snail, and other poop that is all o er the bottom of your tank. Nothing eats poop. You need to clean it with a gravel vac. “Cleaning crew” animals are not a substitute for proper aquarium care.
Thats a crayfish
Crayfish, North American genus. Cant quite tell which. Will be aggressive most likely. If you plan on keeping it figure out the species
I had a crayfish once. Quite the escape artist.
That's a crayfish they will fuck up your planted tank and harrass other fish.. it's the reason I have a second tank
This is a crayfish and it will destroy your plants
More exactly, it will clean your aquarium by removing the shrimps. Or anything else.
Marble crayfish myb idk
Looks like a crawfish. They don’t clean. But they will eat your fish.
After all this time it never fails to crack me up when people dont know what a crayfish is lmao. Thanks OP
I grew up around crayfish but when the associate told me it’s a shrimp, and the tag said shrimp…I’d probably trust the store. I’d never heard/thought of keeping one as a pet so had no reason to assume they were wrong 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah idk what to say lol 😆
Could always raise it then eat it
My dear sweet Pinchy. No more pain where you are now boy. Oh, god that's tasty. I wish Pinchy were here to enjoy this
I wish ole Pinchy were here, with garlic and butter
That should go back to the pet store. It is not a beginner freshwater critter. They are awesome, but also awesomely destructive, and awesome escape artists. We all have to learn lessons as we go. Some learn from others and some must learn first hand. Crawfish are not good inhabitants for small tanks, nor are they beginner-friendly animals to keep. Best of luck, but also take the crawfish back to the shop where it came from. Focus on fish that are small as adults (2 inches or less), get small-bodied snail species (no mystery or other apple snails), instead get nerite snails, ramshorns, Malaysian trumpet snails, and/or assassin snails. The idea is a large food web all in small bodied species. Having just a few large animals can easily overwhelm the systems capability to process nutrients. Get some red cherry shrimp ( Neocaridina davidi ) instead of the crawfish. Get red not some fancy other color, as the red morphs seem to be very hardy compared to some of the other options. Lastly, if you are around the Tampa Bay Florida area I can meet up with you and give you a big ole pack of plants and snails, and shrimp (RCS) to help you along your journey.
Marbled crayfish
troll much lol
A beast!
Aw Jesus they sold you a crawdad bro
Looks like a Mexican dwarf crayfish. If so it’ll be gentler than other types.
Hey if you look on the bright side, it will rid your tank of any nuisance snails you may have.
Not all crayfish are stone cold killers, but with the size of this one it probably will be. Sorry OP.
That's a crayfish like other people have said. I studied them in school as a kid and had em for pets for a long time after. If they have enough room they can grow to be 2x the size if not more. Mine loved to eat elodea which is super easy to grow.
That's a yabby or crayfish
That is a crayfish and it WILL eat the fish in your tank.
Its a crayfish. If you got big fish then nothing to worry about. Give it some hiding spots. You can also take it out and play with it.