Pet Crayfish: How Often You Should Change the Water in a Tank

If you are asking yourself, “How often should I change my fish tank’s water with a crayfish?” Let me try and help you out. Because, in this blog, we’ll discuss water changes.

I’ve successfully kept my freshwater blue crayfish for several years. I’ve learned lots of things, and sometimes I’ve learned the hard way. But in doing so, I’ve also learned what works, and what doesn’t work.

Water Changes with a Pet Crayfish: They’re Dirty, Y’all

First off, freshwater crayfish are very dirty creatures, among other things. Yes, they are very pretty to look at, as well as very interesting little things. However, these little guys put out a lot of waste. Because of this, they can quickly make your fish tank nasty, ugly, and unhealthy for other fish to live in.

This means water changes with freshwater crayfish are essential to keeping a healthy fish tank. One that is pretty to look at and not toxic to any other freshwater fish you might be keeping in the tank.

Is Your Tank Big Enough?

If you are trying to keep a freshwater crayfish in a smaller tank, it may be more challenging to keep a clean tank. Personally, I recommend nothing smaller than a 20-gallon fish tank for one crayfish. With a tank at least this big, you should be able to have a nice fish tank for your crayfish and a few other fish. But, don’t add too many, because a 20-gallon tank won’t be ideal for a crayfish and scores of other fish. You’ll end up having to do water changes more frequently than you want. To put it into perspective, I have kept one crayfish in a 20-gallon tank with a rainbow shark and one neon tetra. That was all.

Water Changes: Consistency

One of the biggest things to keeping your tank clean and healthy is consistently changing the water of the fish tank. If you get busy, postpone changes or just forget, your tank might end up looking like a lab experiment gone wrong. If you want to keep your tank clean, again, be consistent with your aquarium’s water changes.

Pro tip: Keep your aquarium out of the view of direct sunlight. Sunlight can promote the growth of unwanted algae.

So How Often Should I Do Water Changes with My Crayfish?

For me, what has worked best, is to do a 20 to 25% water change once every two weeks. So with my 20-gallon tank, every two weeks I empty out four gallons of the older water and add four new gallons of clean fresh water. I, of course, add water conditioner to the water. (Never put water straight from the sink into your tank.) Keep in mind, I also have two other fish in my tank with my blue crayfish.

The Water Filter

Your tank’s filter will also play an important role in the health and cleanliness of your fish tank. If you are not changing the water filter as you should be, you might run into other problems. What I do is replace my water filter once a month. Two weeks later I rinse the filter in cold water, put it back in the tank to run for another two weeks, and then I replace the filter with a totally new one.

Recap

And there you have it. Changing the water of your aquarium is essential in order to keep your fish tank nice looking, and the water healthy enough for your fish and crayfish. So be sure to be consistent with your water changes. Also, if you notice that your tank is getting a little dirtier before the two-week mark, there’s nothing wrong with going into cleaning mode a little earlier.