I am building a terrarium of small West Virginia creatures and plants. I found a large cracked aquarium by the dumpster and hauled it up to the house. When I went to the park the other day I caught some minnows and crawdads.
First I made a mini aquarium out of a flower pot. I put sand and rocks from the creek with one of the crawdads and some of the minnows. I dug up a root bound plant I have and put the roots in the water so they would have the oxygen they need.
The crawdad is doing great. I was fascinated to watch him rearrange his house like a bulldozer moving boulders and dirt to suit him. I also googles crawdad food. Apparently they eat minnows and rotting leaves and vegetables and such. Right now their are rotting minnow carcasses floating all around him. The computer also said that they would eat each other!
In the bowl that I left the rest of the minnows and 2 crawdads in, I am now short a crawdad. I guess they had a battle to the death and one is dead and missing a claw. 
There seems to be a shortage of minnows now too. 
When I finish my terrarium I will have a separate home for the minnows and crawdads. The crawdads will be able to walk from water to land and will be joined by a turtle at some later date. I have plenty of plants to make them a lovely habitat as well.
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