Lobsters - Albinos and Partials

[gonesnakee]

Other than the obvious size factor (well Duh, LOL JK) does anyone know how to tell the diff in say a 3-4 inch specimen? People always ask me because I keep them & well I don't know either, Mark
P.S. wheres all the Martimers? LOL

[reptile boi]

clint,

When the lobsters are cooked, no matter what color they are they will always end up red on the dinner table .

gonesnakee,

I think the difference between lobsters and cf is that lobsters live in saltwater and cf live in fresh. Also, the snout of cf's are smooth whereas on lobsters they are a bit thorny.



Thanks,
Ben

[gonesnakee]

The fresh/saltwater thing is something I kinda thought too, but don't know for sure. I never heard of a saltwater crayfish, but have heard the term fresh water lobster, whether it was proper term or not? Mark

Speaking from my experience as a cook/chef, both animals are crustaceans. Along with shrimp, prawns, slipper bugs, and various others that I've probably not heard of. Every aquatic environment from temperate to tropical regions has some sort of native crustacean. Crayfish and Lobsters are pretty much the same animal excepting size, and lobsters are marine animals. I'm not an icthyologist by any means, but I think if you see a marine (salt water) crayfish for sale it is actually a dwarf species of lobster.

In North America there are two types of lobster commonly seen in restaurants, the American Lobster and the Spiny Lobster. The american has large claws and the spiny has none. Crayfish are not usually found in restaurants outside of the south eastern US. However, I have occasionally cooked them, and find the flavour to be vastly superior to any lobster.

While on the subject of crustaceans, I have some information for those who may not know. The Tiger Prawn is farmed, almost exclusively. These farms are on the mangrove coasts of south east Asia. This practise destroys the environment, and the farms must be moved every 3 years to keep producing. Mangrove forests and surrounding tidal plains are full of all sorts of life. As a chef and a consumer I avoid this prawn for this reason. Instead I opt for the Gulf, Spot, or Side Striped Prawn. In particular the Gulf Prawn harvested from the gulf of Texas. As the fishermen there are required to have TED's (turtle extraction devices), to protect endangered seas turtles.

Jason

[gonesnakee]

THX Jason interesting info, Mark

[Jeff_Favelle]

I'm not an icthyologist by any means,

Icthyologists don't study crustaceans. They study fish. Class: Osteichthyes, formerly known as Icthyes.


Crayfish vs lobster: scroll down to "description"

http://www.american.edu/TED/crayfish.htm

Thanks Jeff, I was aware that Icthyologists studied fish. But I never thought about the fact that crustaceans would be a different area of study. Even though it makes sence, as there are many marine creatures that are not fish. However I didn't think the technichal differences were that important to my addition in this thread.

I hope you were not offended by my apparent ignorance. I will attempt to be more accurate and precise in the future. And thanks for the excellent link, I spent about 10 minutes there and bookmarked it for later use!

Thanks,
Jason

[gonesnakee]

Interesting read but still lots of Gray area when looking at something in a tank at the petstore vs finding it naturally LOL Looks like most of the ones I was refering to are most likely all Crayfish (all being fresh water), but the term Red lobster is obviously abused by the stores quite often as they are likely not lobsters at all. Pretty closely related creatures anyhow & when they outgrow their tank you can always BBQ LOL Mark

[Ducksarefun]

In Nova Scotia, lobsters under a certain size (roughly 82 cm carapace length, but in varies among Lobster Fishing Areas) are illegal to have, and I am guessing it is the same elsewhere in Canada and the US, so the chances of you ever even seeing a crayfished-sized lobster is virtually nil, unless you go out fishing on a lobster boat.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

EVERYONE:

Thank you all for this discussion.

Reading it over did make me hungry and my family had us over for what - lobster and shrimp, damn nice. Being in the middle of Canada these meals are rather more a treat than normal dinner.

We had grilled lobster with the butter and trimmings and the shrimp was batter and fried............a heart attacks best friend but its rare so why not eat when I can

Tony