Has this ever been done before?

GiantVinegaroon

GiantVinegaroon

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OK so I think at one point or another everyone has wanted to buy a live lobster from their local super market and keep it as a pet. Has anyone here ever done this?

I'm just curious.
 
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Galapoheros

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I think I remember hearing somewhere that they can live for decades, I bet you could do it, haven't looked into it. I wonder if the water needs to be pretty cool though.
 
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Matt K

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If you set up a saltwater aquarium with the proper filtration and chiller unit, they can be bought and kept in an aquarium indefinately. Its really no different than keeping any other small shrimp or hermit crab that you would buy in the saltwater section of a pet shop.
 
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arachnochicken

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Cooling the water is the easy part . Like Matt K said all you will need is a chiller . Now the down side , they are not cheep and they use a lot of electricity to run .
Someone on a reef forum asked that same question , a few people tried keeping them with out a chiller but they didn't last very long .They cant take the warmer waters in out tanks . The kind of lobsters they sell in the supermarket mostly come from the northeast Atlantic where the waters are usually under 60 degrees (depending how deep you go). And they will definitely out live all of us . There was a huge one (forget how big) that was shipped to a seafood rest ,It was confiscated and set free , it was estimated at 100+ years old . Lobsters can only be caught and sold between certain sizes , to small or to large and they have to be set free .
 
dtknow

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Agreed. Probably out of reach of most people. Cold clean water would be required. I've seen spiny lobsters on display at aquariums(and at our marinelab on campus) and they aren't exactly the most active creatures.(although sometimes they would stay out in the open and make an impressive display...they can get massive)

Some tropical spiny lobsters and small reef lobsters are available commonly. Don't forget crayfish of course.
 
GiantVinegaroon

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dtknow said:
Agreed. Probably out of reach of most people. Cold clean water would be required. I've seen spiny lobsters on display at aquariums(and at our marinelab on campus) and they aren't exactly the most active creatures.(although sometimes they would stay out in the open and make an impressive display...they can get massive)

Some tropical spiny lobsters and small reef lobsters are available commonly. Don't forget crayfish of course.
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Yea I'm sticking with my crayfish. I was just curious about the lobsters as they popped up while I was watching crayfish videos on youtube and never really saw a video where someone actually bought one from a supermarket and put it in a tank(all these "pet lobsters" on youtube were just shown crawling on the floor or something dumb).
 
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arachnochicken

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If you were really interested in getting a lobster look into a Spiny Lobster . They get just about as big as a regular lobster and you wont have to worry about getting pinched , no large claws . Or if you want something weird look at slipper lobster ,they have pretty big claws and are pretty cool and strange looking at the same time .

I was thinging about getting a spiny lobster for my tank but worry about them messing with my corals and my ornimantal shrimps . If you have a fish only tank you shouldn't have anything to worry about other then maybe slow moving or sleeping fish . Just remember , the larger they get the more they will rearange you aqua-scape .
 
GiantVinegaroon

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arachnochicken said:
If you were really interested in getting a lobster look into a Spiny Lobster . They get just about as big as a regular lobster and you wont have to worry about getting pinched , no large claws . Or if you want something weird look at slipper lobster ,they have pretty big claws and are pretty cool and strange looking at the same time .

I was thinging about getting a spiny lobster for my tank but worry about them messing with my corals and my ornimantal shrimps . If you have a fish only tank you shouldn't have anything to worry about other then maybe slow moving or sleeping fish . Just remember , the larger they get the more they will rearange you aqua-scape .
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I don't even have a saltwater tank. Like I said, I only asked out of curiousity.

I decided that if I ever do start a saltwater tank, it will be for invertebrates and I'd start with blue crabs or jellyfish. That won't be for another few years or more though. Just sayin' lol.
 
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Matt K

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IF you search AB, you will find there is a thread on jellyfish already and how much devotion and finances it takes to have those. They absolutely require attention every day, and the setup for them is very expensive.
 
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arachnochicken

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Sorry Scotty must have missed that you didn't have a saltwater tank but when you do , you'll love it . As for getting jelly fish , everything I've read about them is that they are pretty hard to keep and filtering the tank is a nightmare .When your ready to set one up and if you still want jellies look into a local aquarium and see it they have a set up . Ususally someone there will be happy to talk to you about them .
 
Tleilaxu

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It has been done before but its difficult to get the water temps correct, now sometimes they sell warm water spiny lobsters in supermarkets and those can be house successfully also as an addendum to what some stated about the spiny lobster they are called that for a reason, they use their long antenna as whips and it hurts if they get you....
 
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arachnochicken

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Actually they're called spiny lobsters because of the short spines that run along the tail and body . The antanna's are mostly used for feeling around (lobsters have horrible bad eye sight) and to ward off any predators .
 
GiantVinegaroon

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Matt K said:
IF you search AB, you will find there is a thread on jellyfish already and how much devotion and finances it takes to have those. They absolutely require attention every day, and the setup for them is very expensive.
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I wasn't asking how to keep jellies and blue crabs. I was just saying I was considering them too.

I did look at that thread though, and wow, I didn't expect an invert to be so difficult to care for. Completely changed my mind on keeping them.
 
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