What do juvenile painted crayfish eat?

Question

I live in north queensland and very often see crays>350mm. I set traps for small fish using every bait imaginable but never catch crays. They dont seem to be predators and dont seem to move enough to be grazing on weed, sponges etc. I mostly see them on underside of coral. Iwould love to have one as pet in my reef tank but dont know what it eats?

Answer 1

I live in San Diego, California, USA and crayfish here are freshwater.  I am not sure what your painted crayfish are but if they are salt water I would think they would be like any small lobster or large shrimp: basically a scavenger.  If you can catch one you can try it in your reef tank but watch it carefully to see if it attacks or eats anything in your tank.  I catch crayfish here by running a net under the plants on the edge of shallow rivers.  That's where the crayfish hide.  I find babies and adults that way.  I also have a tank devoted to cherry shrimp.  While the shrimp are harmless to everything, they are voracious feeders and gorge themselves on every food item I put in the tank.  They don't eat the java moss or duck weed but hide in it.  They love flake or granular fish food and it's fun to watch them eat.

Answer 2

just keep watching them for a while

go down to the place you see them and

drop in various foods and see what it likes