Heckel's vs the Cleanup Crew

[TURQ64]

I posted this elsewhere a few weeks ago when I saw these guys contesting for their chow...self cloning Marmokrebs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYb_mn2U_JA&feature=plcp

[Trier20]

Cool video! I had a little lobster in my tank a while back. They are cool to watch for sure and don't back down!

[cubert]

nice vid, are those tiny lobsters or crawdads? do they help clean the bottom well?

[dadecountyalan]

nice! i used to have cray fish in my old discus tank but i had to take them out when the big male used to clamp on to my fishes tale and take a ride around the tank lol.
not to mention he killed three corey cats lol

[Eddie]

Killer heckels!

[shoveltrash]

those Heckels are beautiful! the Marmokrebs? for some reason I find them a bit creepy LOL (much like insects - no offense :) )

[TURQ64]

The Marmokrebs are self cloning; no 'male' or 'female'..They are a crayfish, and are edible by both the fish and us!...they are very good at cleaning up, but they like to munch small fish, so they are in this big fish tank. I've had them chew up a few angels overnite, so those guys went 'Perch fishing'...The ones shown were juvies from a hatch in the Java ferns..the newborn little ones are very tasty to the Discus, hence the reason for the experiment..The ones you see are now history; the Heckels eventually take them out one at a time, and tear them apart...Now the present crop is the juvies from the ones shown, and the cycle repeats..Fun to watch....always a mystery here trying to guess where they hide..Now the 'Queen' of all of them is in a breeder flat, she's about 5", and very prehistoric looking. The young are true clones, down to every spot and color..
..yeah, Eddie, that's my favorite pair of Heckels. I moved them to their own tank yesterday, as they have produced wigglers in the community tank twice in a year...hopefully, they'll go again!...