How to Keep Live Seafood Overnight

Lobster may live up to 48 hours without salt water circulation.

No matter where you live, you can purchase and enjoy live seafood. However, if your seafood arrives a day earlier than planned, or you come home with a bumper crop, you'll need to store the creatures safely. Cooking dead seafood like crab, crawfish and lobster is not recommended, as freshness matters. Properly stow and keep your live food until you are ready to prepare them. A few extra steps may save you money and keep your fresh seafood safe to eat. Does this Spark an idea?

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Large glass bowl
Damp newspaper
Plastic tubs
Ice

Instructions

Storing Lobster
- 1
  
  Empty a roomy shelf in your refrigerator to store the lobster.
- 2
  
  Place the lobster in a large glass bowl. Leave the rubber bands on the claws in place.
- 3
  
  Refrigerate the lobsters pushing them to the back where the fridge is coldest. Cover the bowl with damp newspaper. Lobsters will keep safely overnight.
Storing Crabs
- 4
  
  Pack a plastic tub half full of ice. Place the crabs in the ice, tossing them lightly with an ice layer. Throw away any fishy-smelling crabs.
- 5
  
  Position the tub in the refrigerator on a bottom shelf. Keeping the crab on a bottom shelf will prevent the creatures from scattering water around the refrigerator.
- 6
  
  Refrigerate crabs for up to four days, changing the ice daily to keep the crabs fresh.
Storing Crawfish
- 7
  
  Pour crawfish into a deep tub or container. Crawfish tend to crawl, so a shallow container won't work. Toss out any broken or dead crawfish.
- 8
  
  Cover the container with a towel. Place the covered tub in the refrigerator on a bottom shelf.
- 9
  
  Keep the crawfish refrigerated up to two days.