These are some of the words I've said and heard the first time myself and others saw them. Man those are Gigantic, Large, Grande, Huge, Enormous, Wow, and look at the color of those things!!!!! What is that?

I have called pet stores all over the United States and have only talked to three pet stores that have every heard of Red Claws.  You will soon see the Australian Red Claw in a pet store near you.  Any aquarium hobbist would love to have an oddball like this in there tank.  Right now we are currently working on breeding blues with blues to get a deeper blue color distinction.  We also have the Walkamin G strain.  Once the male Walkamin breeds with the female we move him over to the regular female Red Claws to breed with them.   Cross breeding the weaker strain with the stronger strain. These are just a couple of things we are working on right now.

Walkamin strain is currently not for sale

Just another tid bit of information the so called Electric Blue Lobster (American Crayfish) can only grow to maybe 4-5 inches in length.  The male  Australian Red Claw Lobster (Australian Cryafish) can be identified with the red claw and grow up to 12 -14 inches in length..  If the red patch is not on the claw then your being sold a regular American Blue cray.  Female Australian Red Claws do not have red claws. The tentacles on a Australian Red Claw are much longer than the entire body length of the cray unless clipped off by another cray.  American blues will have short tentacles 90% of the time not longer than the entire body length of the cray.  That is how you can tell if your being sold a true Blue Lobster.

If you become enthused as I have with my critters, in one year you could have your own stock. With six females and three males you could be on your way with your broodstock or just a really great looking addition to your fish tank or whatever else you choose to do with them, use your head. My own personal experience is that the Red Claw will find a rock or corner to make his new home in. The evening is when they will start to move about since their nocturnal. I have found out as adding them to tanks with Cichlids and Oscars are the only type of freshwater fish that will attack the Red Claw. If added with a small Cichlids or Oscars and any other type of aquatic freshwater fish there should not be a problem. The Red Claw is nothing like the American crayfish or the Electric Blue always ready for a fight when something swims close to it. Red Claws are very docile due to their origin in Australia the summer time brings drought throughout the rivers, canals and estuaries which cause all the Red Claws to congregate in many small watering holess. Which in turn makes them use to being in cramped corners and able to get along with other aquatic fish and crayfish to stay alive until the rainy season comes again.

  Here are some pictures

Michael Robinson from Stick-Fins & I have partnered up to use our 9 years experience to raise the perfect addition to any freshwater aquarium or any other need you might want them for.

Just a little general information:

The red claw lobster or Cherax quadricarinatus is a tropical invertebrate that isn’t really a lobster at all but a species of crayfish. The species is also know as red claw crayfish. Other names includes Red claw Freshwater Lobster, Red Fresh Water Lobster, Australian Red Claw Crayfish.

It can be found in Australian waters and can be a spectacular addition to any aquarium. Red claw lobsters are relatively non aggressive but can be hard to keep with small slow moving fish as these might end up on the lobster menu.

Red claw lobsters should be kept in water with a pH value of 6.5-8 and at a temperature of 77-90 ° F / 25-32 ° C. The water should be kept as clean as possible and water changes of 20% per week are recommended.

Red claw lobsters are mostly active during the night and will spend most of the day hiding in a cave somewhere. They are mainly bottom dwelling but will be found climbing everything that is climbable so an aquarium cover that doesn’t leave any escape routes are a must. You can keep hardier plants with red claw lobster and a moderate amount of plants should be considered a minimum when keeping lobsters as well as a number of caves created by roots and rocks that give the lobster places to hide.

Red claw lobster live for up to 5 years and grows to be approximately 12 to 14 inches and around 8 inches are more common place. Red Claw lobsters are scavengers that accept a broad variety of frozen and dried food. Their diet should however include vegetable as well as carnivorous elements. Their diet can affect their color. Lobsters, as most other invertebrates, have the ability to regenerate lost limbs and the new limb will usually grow out within a month.

Red claw lobsters can be breed in aquariums and they reach sexual maturity at the age of one. The male deposits his sperm on the belly of the female after a courting process and the eggs are released within 24 hours. The eggs will then take up till 5 weeks to hatch. Each batch may contain up to 1000 eggs.

Red Claw lobsters are not only an interesting aquarium inhabitant but also a sought after food item among other reasons for their nutritional value and low fat content. But is still recommend that you try to keep a lobster in your aquarium rather then eat one no matter how tasty a food source they might be.

The link below is a nice place to order books and review some more information about the Australian Red Claw and American crayfish farming.  I have both books in my collection. 

atlaspub.20m.com/