The Differences Between Crayfish and Lobster: A Comprehensive Guide

Don’t get caught in a seafood mix-up. Let’s understand the difference between lobsters and crayfish!

Many people think lobster and crayfish to be fancy words for seafood, but oh boy, are they in for a surprise. These words mean very different things depending on where you live.

Imagine you’re at a fancy restaurant, ready to dig into a succulent lobster dinner, but instead, you get a plate of tiny freshwater crayfish. Talk about a bummer! You better hope your waiter and chef know the difference! But depending on which country you are in, that could be perfectly appropriate. We don’t want this to happen to you; let’s clear up the confusion. Here’s everything you need to know about the similarities and differences between crayfish vs lobster and other crustaceans.

Comparison Table: Crayfish vs Lobster

Feature	Crayfish	Lobster
Habitat	Freshwater (streams, rivers, lakes) and brackish water	Saltwater (oceans, seas)
Physical appearance	Smaller in size, usually with a reddish color, smaller claws	Larger in size, usually with a greenish-brown color, large claws
Cost	Less expensive than lobsters	More expensive than crayfish
Lifespan	3-8 years	30+ years
Size	3 inches or 7.5 cm	9 inches or 23 cm
Length	5-10 cm	20-50 cm

There are many types of lobsters

When it comes to lobsters, there’s more to them than meets the eye. At first glance, they may look like giant alien bugs with pincers, but did you know there are many distinct types? Yep. Each has unique power and characteristics (like The Avengers of the marine world).

Comparison of lobster types and species

• Clawed lobsters have large claws and live in colder waters than other “lobsters,” primarily in the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Chefs worldwide salivate when thinking about their delicious meat. The family of clawed lobsters consists of reef lobsters and true lobsters.
• Spiny lobsters are not true lobsters. They are also called rock lobsters; in many countries, they are called crayfish, crawfish, or “kreef” in South Africa. They lack claws, have spines on their head, body, and tail, live in warm waters, and their meat is firm and tasty. Their closest relative is the slipper lobster.
• Slipper lobsters are not true lobsters and have flattened bodies. Their habitat is tropical waters, and their meat is delicate and sweet.
• Squat lobsters are not true lobsters and have a squat body shape and live in deep waters, and their meat is sweet and juicy.
• Furry lobsters, also known as coral lobsters, are not true lobsters, but are closely related to other lobster imposters, such as the slipper and spiny species. They have smaller antennas, and hair covers their bodies.

Fun fact: although many of the species we call “lobsters” or “crayfish” are neither lobsters nor crayfish since they don’t have claws, they were named because they look similar.

Crayfish in North America and Europe

Crayfish live in freshwater in Europe and North America and are known as mudbugs, crawdads, and crawfish. Let’s go cray-see and look at the crayfish in these regions. North American crayfish are reddish freshwater animals and live in lakes, rivers, and streams of the northern states in the US and Canada. European crayfish also live in freshwater but have a more brownish color and distinct taste than the more delicate American crayfish.

Crayfish and Spiny Lobsters in Australia and New Zealand

As many words and phrases change when you go down under, it’s the same with these crustaceans. In Australia and New Zealand, the term “crayfish” may refer to “spiny lobsters,” but they differ from a crayfish. Imagine someone called a zebra a horse or a llama a sheep. They are both four-legged animals with similar appearances but are far from the same thing. Let’s compare the crayfish and spiny lobsters.

Australian crayfish are known as rock lobsters, their habitat is in warm waters in Australia, and their meat is firm and tasty. New Zealand crayfish, also known as rock lobsters, have delicious meat and live in warm waters but in New Zealand instead of Australia.

Comparison of Lobsters and Crayfish

Now that we have sorted out any geographical confusion related to these animals, let’s compare them head-to-head (or claw-to-claw, if you will). There are some similarities and many differences, so let’s begin.

Lobster is a delicacy that you should treat with the utmost respect. With its divine taste, its butter-like texture melts in your mouth like cream. It’s the perfect mix of delightful and pure. When you cook it perfectly, it’s like a kiss from the sea.

Crayfish is a highly misunderstood underdog of the seafood world, and people often overlook it and think of lobsters as the ultimate delicacy. But miss out on crayfish, as it has a more distinct flavor with hints of sweetness and nuttiness. Its texture is firmer and juicier and feels more like biting into a slice of meat than lobster does. It’s versatile and can be prepared and used in many ways. Grill it, make bisque, or serve it with garlic butter sauce.

Cost: Lobsters are more expensive than crayfish. You can think of the crayfish as a low-budget option for lobsters. (Here’s a tip: If you want people to believe you’re a big shot eating expensive lobsters but want to save money and don’t care about the taste, go ahead and order the crayfish as people confuse the two, and everyday people won’t know the difference).

Flavor: Food snobs consider lobsters to be sweeter than crayfish and that crayfish have a more distinct taste. For a comparison, you can think of the crayfish as the mutton of the seafood world.

Physical characteristics: Lobsters have larger bodies and are longer with a cylindrical body shape and red-colored, whereas crayfish are smaller, shorter, and rounder, with various colors, and may resemble other crustaceans you can find in freshwater.

Claws: Lobster claws are more prominent than crayfish claws

Meat content: Lobsters are meatier than crayfish.

Habitat: While lobsters live in the saltwater ocean, crayfish live in fresh waters such as lakes and rivers. Both prefer colder water, but the temperatures vary. Also, their range and distribution are quite different. Reef lobsters live in reefs below the surface down to 300 meters or 980 feet. True lobsters live in waters between 2 and 900 meters or 2950 feet in depth, but some can live as deep as 3,700 meters or 12,140 feet.

Diet: Lobsters are carnivorous and prey on a wide range of animals like fish, mollusks, and other smaller crustaceans, whereas crayfish are omnivorous but limit what they eat to plants and small freshwater animals.

Activity level: Since lobsters hunt more, they are more active than crayfish

Economic and ecological importance: Crayfish populations are stable worldwide, whereas lobster populations are declining due to overfishing. Both are commercial seafood and have a specific role in their ecosystems.

Scientific classification

Let’s start with the family tree and group together all the “ten-footed” animals in the order known as decapods (Decapoda), which originated about 455 million years ago and is the order that contains almost 15,000 species such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, prawns. But one classification of this family tree is Reptania which groups together all crawling or walking decapods, which excludes the shrimps and prawns.

Let’s go deeper into the family tree. We can find Astacidea, where all “true lobsters” are (that does not include spiny lobsters and slipper lobsters, as they are in the Achelata branch of this family tree, which you can consider a second cousin).

Here is the Astacidea family tree:

• Clawed lobsters
  • Enoplometopoidea
    • Enoplometopus (Reef Lobsters)
  • Nephropoidea
    • Nephropidae or Homaridae (True Lobsters)
• Crayfish
  • Parastacoidea
    • Parastacidae (Southern hemisphere family: South America, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea)
  • Astacoidea
    • Cambaroididae (6 species of East-Asian crayfish)
    • Astacidae
      • Pacifastacus (Western North American Crayfish)
      • Astacus (European and West-Asian Crayfish)
      • Pontastacus (East-European and West-Asian crayfish)
      • Austropotamobius (White-Clawed-, Stone- and Idle Crayfish)
    • Cambaridae (Family of 400+ species in Canada, the US, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Cuba)

Crayfish scientific classification

Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Astacidea
Superfamilies of crayfish:

• Astacoidea (Northern Hemisphere)
• Parastacoidea/Parastacidae (Southern Hemisphere)

There are many families of crayfish and several genera under each family.

Lobster scientific classification 

Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Superfamily: Nephropoidea
Family: Nephropidae or Homaridae (Lobster)
Genera in the family:

• Acanthacaris
• Dinochelus
• Eunephrops
• Homarinus
• Homarus 
• Hoploparia
• Jagtia 
• Metanephrops
• Nephropides
• Nephrops
• Nephropsis
• Oncopareia
• Palaeonephrops
• Paraclythia
• Pseudohomarus
• Thaumastocheles
• Thaumastochelopsis
• Thymopides
• Thymops
• Thymopsis

Conclusion

Now that you know the key differences between crayfish and lobsters, you can impress your friends and family with fun facts at the next get-together. They may be impressed by your newfound crustacean knowledge or not care.

While they appear similar, they have unique characteristics and flavors. The next time you’re at a restaurant, you should know what you are ordering, and you should be able to tell the difference between these two animals (at least the restaurant won’t fool you if you order a lobster and the waiter brings a crayfish. Don’t pay lobster prices for crayfish)

To summarize, both are delicious animals you can serve on a dinner plate, but lobsters are larger, more expensive, and have a sweeter taste. Crayfish are smaller, more affordable, and have a more pronounced flavor. Try ordering both and compare the taste of each one; you may have a personal favorite.

Frequently Asked Questions about Lobsters vs Crayfish