Lobster, anyone?!

Hey guys,
a friend of mine has shown an interest in keeping a lobster. He has no experience in fish keeping at all but he's dedicated and bright so I think he would be ok...
Has anyone kept a lobster before?What do they need? He says he wants one of the little blue ones. Any advice would be welcome!

 

No clue! But interesting idea!!

 

No clue either but how big is it? I've seen some cool lobsters in stores before and have fun catching them during my dive out here in San Diego. But I let em go afterwards since I'm in a preserved area and haven't gone out to catch dinner yet. Maybe next season.

 

hehe yum! (only kidding..I don't eat any fish but I do eat cows and pigs lol)

According to my book the smaller species grow up to 5 inches whereas the large ones grow up to 8 inches. It doesn't say anything about how to care for them, what temp they need, what sort of substrate or what food they need. I know they're scavengers so I guess they must eat most stuff but I wonder if they need anything to help keep their shells in good condition.

 

hehe yum! (only kidding..I don't eat any fish but I do eat cows and pigs lol)
According to my book the smaller species grow up to 5 inches whereas the large ones grow up to 8 inches. It doesn't say anything about how to care for them, what temp they need, what sort of substrate or what food they need. I know they're scavengers so I guess they must eat most stuff but I wonder if they need anything to help keep their shells in good condition.

Temp depends on type of lobster, usually colder water. As for food, lobsters are indiscriminate omnivores. So I would mix their diet with shrimp, krill, squid some norI (dried seaweed) and sinking pellet food.
Substrate, just lots of rock to hide in.
As with all crustaceans, lobsters go through the process of molting. They must shed their exoskeleton in order to grow. To encourage and help this process crustaceans need some iodine.

 

I thought about keeping one of them but no one gave me any help on keeping one so I had to let the kool idea go :-\ hope it workes out better for you...or your friend (cant remember) ;D

 

Sounds to me like you might be talking about a crawfish, which are often times referred to as lobsters in pet stores. The electric blue/blue crawfish are actually freshwater, and I'd say the 5-8" is about right for their size. A true lobster can get much larger than that. When I was in Maine, I saw a lobster whose crusher claw(just the claw part, not the arm) was larger than my size 12 shoe. Also, FYI, the chances of finding a blue lobster are about 1 in 1,000,000

 

hahaha thanks for that! I didn't think they were lobsters - lobsters are much bigger and red from what I've seen.
Now can you tell me the difference between a crayfish and a crawfish?? Because they seem very similar...
thanks

 

It just depends on where you come from. Some people say Cray some say Craw some even saw Crawdad. I have had a Blue Cray. I have had 3 crays all together. To the best of my knowledge a Blue Cray is the Crayfish version of albino.

 

Hey guys,
a friend of mine has shown an interest in keeping a lobster. He has no experience in fish keeping at all but he's dedicated and bright so I think he would be ok...
Has anyone kept a lobster before?What do they need? He says he wants one of the little blue ones. Any advice would be welcome!

Cray fish look like blue losbsters...they like to climb out of tank if they can get out tho...one of my cats were playing with one on the carpet which got out.

 

I haven't kept one. But I assume they are very easy to keep. (and if you do get bored of him, he would make an awesome meal).
Many restaurants in my area have them in tanks, and they all seam live and healthy, until they get boiled alive that is.

 

Hey bonza - are you in CT? I'm from Durbs but been living in the UK for 10 years now