Finnally - Somethin Tropical - Crayfish

[PaulV]

Hello to all. Thought I would drop in and say hello.

I have been breeding and experimenting with crayfish for 8 years or more so thought perhaps I may be able to help those of your with crayfish questions...

cheers
Paul V

[William]

welcome Paul

[Anonymous]

Thank you William

[Anonymous]

I had a question. I bought a crayfish for my tank several weeks ago. It seemed to be doing fine it even molted once. It was very active then I started to notice that it was becoming more and more sedated. I thought that perhaps it was getting ready to molt again but instead it died. Does any one have a clue why

[PaulV]

ledesmas,

Depends on your system. To me it sounds like you had very little do2 (oxygen) in the water. Again depending on the species, most have a high tolerance to low disolved oxygen and usually one aerator will do the trick. Do you know what breed it was? If you dont you could describe it and I will have a go at "guessing" its species.

Crayfish have a tendancy to want to get out of the water and sit on a log or rock or what ever they can. They just stick their head out and keep their gills moist.

Most folks that keep crayfish, keep them in a full tank where there is no option of the crayfish to get to the surface of the water. In this case they HAVE to have plenty of air circulating in the water, especially with some of the new tanks like the Aqua One series...

However, sometimes it is just the luck of the draw when buying crayfish from aquarium shops. Many do not feed them a correct and balanced diet and simply give them Algae Pellets or Crayfish Pellets, which usually do not contain enough protene. There is currenly no pellet form of suppliment diet that works with crayfish in intensive tanks. Many have researched it and have found that this is the major downfall of farmers and breeders in intensive (tanks) and extensive habitats (ponds)

So when you buy them (they have had them for two weeks or more) you manage to keep them alive for another month or two then they die.

The next time you get yourself one of these critters, buy some algae pellets and put them in your blender with some blood worms or earth worms toss in a handful of Lupin (grain feed) and blend it up. Spread it out on a flat board to let it dry out to a powder then put it in a jar and feed them that. If you can not dry it out, you may need to refrigerate it and use a spoon to put it in the tank. Roughly 1 t/spoon every other day will do one crayfish. Just keep an eye on the amonia levels...

cheers
Paul V

Sorry for posting as a guest, my password has taken a long walk in cyberland and it seems the system here does not want to send it to me.

[bluecraymom]

Paul V, ( I know this is an OLD thread but hopefully you're still around!! )
I have a blue cray and she has successfully hatched her fry! They are living in a 20 gal, and she is living in a 10 with some of the leftover babies. Here is my question however... She still seems to have some (dead?) unhatched fry on her swimmerets. Is this a problem? Do I need to pick her up and remove them?? Aside from the dead babies on her tail she seems to be happy (eating food, all the plants in her tank, walking around etc).
Thanks for your help!

[Cliff]

This is a very old thread, and the OP had not logged on in over eight years

I would be best if you started your own thread in the correct section of the forum to ask your questions. You should get a lot more input that way