It is popular as a freshwater aquarium pet across Asia, Europe, and North America because of its orange-tipped claws.

[2] Specimens were previously misidentified as members of Cherax holthuisi, also from West Papua.

By the time it was examined by professional zoologists in 2015, Cherax snowden, a new species of crayfish (Crustacea, Decapoda, Parastacidae) from the Kepala Burung (Vogelkop) Peninsula in Irian Jaya (West Papua, Indonesia) was already popular as a pet in Europe, East Asia and America under the name "orange tip".

The scientific species description was published by German zoologists from the Institute for Environmental Sciences University of Koblenz and Landau.

The species was named after Edward Snowden[3] to honor his contribution to the freedom of speech.