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Murray Cray pet

Gitft vouchers available for Christmas, special birthdays, an anniversary or simply to say thank you!   Hodgson House, Echuca's B&B on the Murray River - our promise is we will pamper you!

 

Murray Cray in the aquarium

We put a small aquarium in at Hodgson House for our guests to see a Murray Cray. Alan Culph from Murray River Fishing Tours caught the 1st Cray of the 2007 season for us - we named him - Claude (the Cray) and released him at the end of the season into the safety of the Campaspe River - the Campaspe is not fished for Crays so there is every chance for Claude to grow old gracefully.

A Murray Cray makes a spectacular aquarium pet.  They're not usually available through the aquarium trade, so capture from the wild is the only real option.  Since minimum sizes apply, you need a relatively large aquarium to successfully keep a Murray Cray.  Spiny crays are rumoured  to be great at escaping (and are! ) so you must ensure that you have a close fitting lid, with a heavy object on top of it, to keep him (remember, you can't capture females) in the tank. 

Relatively easy to keep, crays can be fed on small pieces of meat, worms, small pieces of carrot peel and the occasional piece of green vegetable matter, such a lettuce leaf, that has had its cell structure broken by freezing.  A clean piece of heavy old wood, perhaps a bit of redgum , will also be chewed on.

Crays will destroy anything in the tank made of plastic and will demolish air stones in quick order.  A simple solution to this problem is to silicone a glass panel diagonally across one corner of the tank, leaving a small gap at the bottom and sufficient clearance at the top to allow for water flow, and to put any air pipes behind it where the Cray can't get them.  You should always handle them with extreme care as even quite small Crays are quite capable of removing the top of a finger with their pincers. 

To book at Hodgson House, call Anne on 5482 2128 or contact us by EMAIL

 

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