breeding crawfish

**tony27** · 07-26-2006, 03:03 AM

8O well I was fishing and saw some crawfish swimming and picked them up with my net. and so on. well they didn't like the tank at first now they do it's 55 gal well the other day it looked they were fighting but well I guess maybe they were havin sex so now i wonder if anyone knows what to do with baby crawfish is there any thing to make them not get eattin by my sunfish and or my goldfish because the male or the big craw fish have no problem attacking the fish but I think that teddy my sunfish my want to snack on them because he eats everything i put worms woodticks small minnows you name it he will eat it. so help me if you know what to do with baby crawfish.

**male molly kid** · 02-17-2011, 11:03 PM

ok first wate tell u see babys under the females tail move the female in a new tank a ten gallon willl work then wen the babys move of the mom move mom back in the 55 ok now feed the babys crushed flakes or small worm or blood worms or sinking pelets or dead guppys or enything then wate for them to gro feed 2 times a day and youl be fine happy to help ps if u have lots uf hiding spots youn wont need to move them.

**UncleWillie** · 02-18-2011, 12:43 AM

If your crayfish were belly-to-belly, then they were mating. If they were not, they likely were fighting. It pretty easy to differentiate females from breeding stage males. Male will have their first set of swimmerettes modified into 'hooks'.

Anyway, the advice you've gotten is pretty good. Although I would caution about moving berried females. Many times a change in water parameters will trigger a molt. If the female molts, she loses the brood. A ten gallon tank would be perfect, but make sure that the water you put in that tank is water from the 55 gallon and you try not to stress the female. A more sound practice of breeding crays would be to have both the male and female in the ten gallon, then remove the male. This way the female has zero stress on her and should not abort her brood. Luckily, if she does abort, she can reproduce 2 more times from the previous mating. I would feed algae wafers to crays as the primary diet.