Lobster rescue

[Yarshman]

I'm having a custom acrylic tank built in a couple of weeks, which I'm starting from scratch with. In my exsisting 20 gallon, I was considering purchasing a lobster from the grocery and letting him live the rest of his days in a more suitable environment(perhaps?). Is a 20 gallon too little for a small lobster, and what would I feed it? Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks

[Trumpet12]

The lobster would probably eat almost anything. Marine foods are probably best for it. I would guess that a 20 gallon is probably too small, but this depends on the type of lobster. It is quite possible that a grocery store lobster might need a chiller on its tank.

[Dazz]

Grocery store lobsters live for years and years and can out live you. It takes 10 years for a lobster to gain 1# of weight, so a 14lbs lobster is aprox 140 years old.

[spawner]

Should go good with warm butter and some hot sauce,

Sorry couldn't help myself.

One thing and it’s important. You MUST keep the water very cold, feel that water in the tank at the store, should be around 50 or so. Do you have a chiller? Other wise you might was well pull out the butter.

Good luck and I bet you'll find that it has quite a personality, once you get to know it.


andy

[Scuba_Dave]

We live in NE, and you would need to keep the temp down - maybe 60-65. You would have to research that. And a 20g would be too small, they put out a lot of waste. They don't really feed them at the grocery store.
I saw an albino that I would have loved to keep when I was diving
I do dive for food. I'm planning on setting up a SW holding tank for lobsters we catch - just until we can cook them

[dad300]

the tank would need to be in the 36-43 degree range. that is where we keep ours in the store that I work for. You could keep one in a 20 gl if you want but you would need to go barebottom to keep the tank clean. they put out a huge amount of waste. and we don't feed them. unless another one dies and they start munching on him before we catch it. we clean the tank itself once or twice a week just to get rid of the detrius on the tank floor. in 20gl you would need to do it on a daily basis.
personally if you are keeping it as a pet it needs to be in a much larger tank. so it can act like a lobster not a meal waiting to be eaten. I would think a 125 gl ecosystem set up for a lobster would be a really cool tank.

[MATTT]

Why would you need to rescue it ? It is there for a reason, to be eaten. :lolspin:

[Xanareef]

Originally posted by Dazz
Grocery store lobsters live for years and years and can out live you. It takes 10 years for a lobster to gain 1# of weight, so a 14lbs lobster is aprox 140 years old.

Do you have any actual evidence to support this claim?

http://www.tolgus.com/marinelife/lobster.htm

...though lobsters have a potential lifespan of 15-20 years and can reach 5 kg in weight...

Another site quotes a lifespan of 50 years.

[MarkS]

Originally posted by MATTT
Why would you need to rescue it ?

Good question!

[spawner]

To date, there is no proven method to determine the exact age of a lobster. Scientists and experts can only guess at a lobster's age; this is based on water temperature, geographical location, and other factors. On average, it takes approximately 5-7 years for a lobster to reach 455 grams (the traditional 1 pound minimum legal size). It is believed, however, that in the wild lobsters can approach 100 years or more in age.
http://www.neaq.org/scilearn/research/lobsterfacts.html

[wwxc]

I kept a blue crab from out of the Chesapeake Bay in a 20 gallon one summer.

It was one of the coolest animals I've ever kept. He loved cold cuts and had quite a personality. Girls couldn't get enough of him.

If you're interested in "saving" an animal marked for food give this some thought. Might be tougher to find, but you could probably locate one at a seafood distributor somewhere.

The lobster temp thing would be more trouble than its worth imo.

[pat_man_ta]

I worked on the Chesapeake bay when I was younger. I am quite familiar with blue crabs, their bite, how to avoid getting bitten, how to get them off without killing them, 101 ways TO kill them.....
They will eat ANYTHING, i caught one with a piece of brick mortar on a string once. 5.25" is the legal minimum for hard blue crabs.
I can see if anyone back home could ice some live ones down and fedex them if people are really interested in them. You can get "peelers" at about 3.25" in the summer.

Which brings about my question, Does anyone know how to set up a mid chesapeake biotope type brackish system? I am considering building one, i get homesick and miss the bay sometimes. (I'm in MA now, I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay)

[Scuba_Dave]

Being a diver (and having a license to dive for lobster) we have been told it takes approx 7 years for a lobster to grow to min size. In MA we have a min size: 3 1/4" - which is changing (but it varies by location), and a Max size, 5" or 5 1/4"?? I have a gauge, so I'm not really sure on exact numbers. But we found 2 "huge" lobsters near shore one time. We could not hold the lobster w/ 2 hands!! It took both of us to hold 1 lobster. The carapace - measuring from the eyes to the back of the main shell, was almost 15" long as I remeber. The claws were huge. We were very careful set the lobster back, we didnt want to have a hand crushed

[MarkS]

I still think the question of why he is doing this still needs to be answered by the original poster.

If he wants to create a lobster species tank, that's great! Trying to "rescue" one for some misguided moral reason is lunacy. JMO

[Triterium]

A local aquarium has a 75+ year old lobster....the biggest ive ever seen.

[DgenR8]

Originally posted by MarkS
I still think the question of why he is doing this still needs to be answered by the original poster.

If he wants to create a lobster species tank, that's great! Trying to "rescue" one for some misguided moral reason is lunacy. JMO


The argument can be made that keeping several hundred gallon systems, at a cost of several hundred dollars a month in our homes is lunacy.
It's all in the eye of the beholder.

[MarkS]

I think it's lunacy because he's not collecting one out of open waters that's about to be caught. He collecting it at the retail location in an attempt to save it. How can this possibly help? The store's POS system will update the inventory and an order will be placed to replinish the inventory. Nothing would be gained. In fact, by doing this for the reasons he's going to do this, he's actually adding to the problem and not helping it in the least.

[Triterium]

It doesnt help the species, but it sure helps the individual lobster.

[MarkS]

Originally posted by Triterium
It doesnt help the species, but it sure helps the individual lobster.

True, but I don't think that's his goal. I also do not think he realizes that by doing so, he's only adding to the problem.

[pat_man_ta]

it's a game speceis, the DNR* is responsible for it's conservation, & i think their numbers are sufficient. They're more at risk from pollution than being eaten ultimately IMO. If you want to do it, do it, but it might be easier to keep a tropical lobster despite the availability of chicken lobster.

[Evergreen]

Its one thing to keep a crap from the chesapeake bay. where its warm. Long Island is the southernmost limit to the Lobster's heat tolerance, they are COLD water animals.
MarkS is right; you will only worsen the impact in purchasing it retail, and have no impact on the most important aspect of "conservation"- getting it to reproduce to replenish the wild numbers.

[Yarshman]

ACtually, I was trying to think of a cool creature that I could keep in a tank that would be easy to find and relatively easy to keep. I have an emerald crab that I love to watch(when he's moving, that is), so I came up with buying a lobster. It would be cool to have a pet lobster I could name "Meat" or maybe "Stain" and have him pinch guests or maybe I could run a racket of sorts with the threat of my giant lobster snipping fingers and such, but from what I'm gathering here, the easy keeping part could be a problem. Sure, it sucks if you think about how lobsters are prepaired, but in saying so I may be inadvertantly making people hungry here, so I'll move along....I guess I'll focus on another type of large crustacean, I suppose. Thanks for all of the info from everyone, though.

[Yarshman]

I hate to think of any animal suffering of course, and any way that I might help in a situation, I'm more than happy to partake in, however I try not go on fruitless crusades with a fair-weather attitude and start protesting the senseless slaughter of the lettuce aphid. If I were working for a cause of sorts, I would probably try and genetically engineer dogs who poop grenades or mosquitos that emit fm radio signals so that when you're at a tiki party, and the radio goes out, you can safely assume that there's a mosquito around. I'd give money to politicians who wanted to create chickens with cow butts and a pigs ribs, so we can leave the poor cows and chickens and pigs alone. Yes, that is my life's mission from this point forward. I will create "the Pichickenow". Any donations would be greatly appreciated. At any rate, what does it matter what my motivation would be, when I'm obviously trying to keep one alive, when people purchase them with the sole intention of boiling them alive? What's worse??? Really??? Alive, or boiled alive? If you could pick, where would you rather be on a saturday night? :)

[MarkS]

That's good to know. It's just that you posted this in the Responsible Reefkeeping forum...

[JSB5776]

I kept a blue crab from out of the Chesapeake Bay in a 20 gallon one summer.

I actually had a Blue Crab for about 6 months... Most Incredible animal I have ever kept!!! I was claming on the Vineyard a couple summers ago, and he came up in my rake... One of the main reasons I was there, was to capture some cool inverts for my new tank... So I was stoked when I found him... He was much cooler then all the Invasive Green crabs I was finding... He was such a great pet... He pretty much had the run of a 30 gallon, as no one could ever compete with him... He lived under the sand during the day... and primarily only came out to attack the ever present "squid on a string" during feeding... He would hide so well with just his eyeballs out of the sand, very often being hard to even detect... Untill you dropped that squid in... and BAM!!!! he would fly out of the sand and attack the dangled food with avengence... and yes XMFF girls loved him...

Night time however was a different story... Blue crabs are incredible swimmers... and thats what he did... all night long... just swam and swam and swam... constanly trying to find a way out... just banging the top of the tank until he go tired... I would yell at him... to "shut up... I'm trying to sleep!!!" but he wouldn't listen... It got to the point where I started to feel bad for him... he was so cool, and growing everyday, molting 3 times!!! ... that I soon realized that he really should be back in the ocean... but it was late winter and there was still a ton of snow on the ground in upstate NY... and seeing how they won't let anyone onto the Vinyard till May... I figured he would just have to hang out to then.. and I promised to release him in the spring...

But unfortunately, he didnt make it... He started slowing down a bit... and wasn't eating... and then one afternoon just stopped moving all together... It was very sad to lose him... Now I know what your saying... It was a crab... we eat them all the time... Dude get a life... But its true... Blue crabs have the MOST personality out of anything I have ever kept in a tank... and honestly was more fun then my dog...

So I am going to have to try to discourage anyone from keeping a blue crab... while they are absolutely incredible pets... you would need a Large tank to keep them happy... they will destroy your tank and inhabitants, and while they will love a DSB... Your DSB will not love them...

On a side note... Its a wonder how many I kill unintentionally when I go claming... they live at the same depth as the clams and I am constantly spearing a few with the rake everytime I go... also as you walk the flats you often hear the tell tale "crunch" of what used to be a crab under your heel... Its a shame... but when I get skunked on bluefish... Its good to know I can still outsmart a clam or two...

[shan820]

XMFF????

[JSB5776]

wwxc... I have serius dislexia...

[shan820]

oh, yeah the girls loved him. Your sisters, mother, and nieces.

[MarkS]

I don't know what you two guys are on, but you either had too much or not enough! :D :lol:

[christsoldiers]

Originally posted by Triterium
It doesnt help the species, but it sure helps the individual lobster.
ROTFL!:D
That's the best post I've read in a while thanks for the laugh!