Answer:
All animal's are specially adapted to live and thrive in their own particular environments.  In the case of the American lobster, this is salt water.  Some animals can live in salt or fresh water depending on their life stage e.g., young salmon grow up in freshwater streams but then have to undergo marked changes in their physiology in order to live in the ocean environment.  Lobsters can not do that; however, lobsters can survive out of water for over 72 hours if they are in a cool and moist environment!

Answer:
Lobsters prefer rocky bottoms with lots of algae. This gives them lots of places to hide and the algae attracts much of the food they would eat. They can also be found in sandy or muddy bottom locations but this is not preferred as it provides little shelter from predators.

Answer:
Optimum temperature for lobster is from about 3-10 degrees Celsius but they can survive in water ranging from minus one too plus thirty degrees Celsius.

Answer:
Yes, you can.  Just need to consider some basic water quality parameters, diet, and moult....

Answer:

Salinity range- 29-35ppt normally. As low as 11 in cold water and upper tolerance of 45ppt

Full Question:
Hi, I live in New Jersey. We live on a fresh water lake. I was working on my dock and saw what looked like a small lobster in the shallows. It was about 3-4 inches in length and appeared to have at least one large claw. It was larger than crawfish that I have seen. Could this be a fresh water lobster or something else?

Answer:

What you are describing is a crayfish (or crawfish, depending where you're from). Crayfish are more or less the freshwater equivalent of lobsters and are found just about anywhere in the world. Although they normally do not grow as large as “saltwater” lobsters there is a species in Tasmania called the Giant Freshwater Lobster (Astacapsis gouldi) which can grow up to 1 metre in length. It is one of the largest freshwater invertebrates in the world and is only found in rivers of northern Tasmania.

Answer:

This is definitely a “big picture” question and may be beyond on the scope of a simple answer. However, the lobster plays an integral part in the ecosystem by contributing as a filter feeder during it’s planktonic stage and as an opportunist/predator during it’s benthic stage. The lobster also contributes as a food source for many species in the marine environment as well as a food source for humans. Therefore, the lobster’s role in the ecosystem is quite broad and depends on how you want to look at it.

Answer:

Unlike mussels, oysters and clams, lobsters are not "filter feeders." They do not pump sea water and any pollution that the water might carry through their bodies. They do however; eat animals that are filter feeders so they could accumulate some toxins from them. Water pollution can take many forms, and one of them occurs when many bacteria are growing at the bottom of the ocean. These bacteria can use up a lot of the oxygen present in the water, thus reducing the amount of oxygen available for lobsters to survive. Also, lobster larvae can be very susceptible to different toxins present at the surface of the water, as the larvae will remain at the surface for approximately 1 month after they hatch, before heading to the bottom of the ocean, where they will stay for the remainder of their life. Although lobsters can seem very hardy and tolerant of many environment conditions, they can suffer from bad water quality and water pollution like most aquatic animals.

Full Question:
Will a 6lb female lobster & a 6lb male lobster get along in an aquarium, approx. 4 feet long by 20" wide? Do lobsters in captivity have to go through the molting process or can they be kept at a certain temperature in order to live?

Answer:

A rule of thumb used by industry is 1-2 gallon of water (4-8 L) per lb of lobster. So in this case, you would need to have at least 12 gallons. Another rule of thumb used in the industry for holding live lobster is 1 square-foot of bottom space per lb of lobster. In this case, you would need 12 square-ft. I'm not sure if your tank would be adequate to hold two very large lobsters, even if the water exchange was high enough to support live (high dissolved O2 and low metabolic wastes). Lobsters can survive very long without a need to molting if their metabolism is slowed down (cold environment, limited diet). But even when some of the environmental cues are controlled for, they may still molt simply due to the increase photoperiod in the summer.

Answer:

No. Fresh water is lethal to a lobster. The animal has salty blood and tissue, which require a seawater environment for survival.

Answer:

Several days if kept in a cool, moist environment. The lobster is a gill-breather, and moisture is essential to survival.

Answer:

Small lobsters, less than 25mm carapace length (CL), hide in and about sea weeds and rocky habitat that provide adequate food and shelter from predators. Adolescent lobsters 37mm to 60mm CL dominate coastal habitats and offshore areas. They may exhibit minimal migratory behavior. Larger, more mobile, adult lobsters may inhabit deeper waters and may return seasonally to shallow warmer waters.

Answer:

The American Lobster is found on the east coast of North America, from Newfoundland to North Carolina. In 2003, more than 52,000 metric tonnes of lobsters were landed in Canada. In comparison, 32,000 metric tonnes were landed in the USA in 2003, and 78% of these landings were in Maine.

Answer:

While the lobster has been called a scavenger, it actually prefers fresh food, though a whiff of lobster bait might belie that fact. Its diet typically consists of crabs, clams, mussels, worms, and an occasional sea urchin or slow-witted flounder, and will vary depending on what type of prey is available. A lobster may eat up to 100 different kinds of animals, and occasionally eat some plants as well. An opportunist, a lobster will also eat another lobster if given the chance. Captive lobsters become especially cannibalistic, which is why they must be banded or separated in individual compartments in a lobster pound. However, cannibalism has not been observed in the wild. Because lobsters eat their molts, it is dangerous to make this inference based on gut content analysis.