Breeding - Freshwater Cray **update**

Hello all... new to the site and I was wondering if anyone had any information and advice regarding my cray. I bought an orange mexican dwarf crayfish a few months ago for our community tank at work. We all have enjoyed watching him and he has been a great tank mate for our Angels and Barbs, so much that we decided to purchase another cray. Originally, I was told she was a vanilla specter lobster, whom the breeder said it's origin was Australian.

After studying the two crayfish together, we started to compare and didn't see much difference between the two besides the orange was a male and the white lobster was female. Our orange male quickly grew to the size of our white lobster, however, she hasn't grown since having her.

The orange has molted twice, and the white lobster has molted only once that we are aware of. Here recently we caught them mating, and it made us wonder could they be the same species? Is it possible for them to be able to reproduce? Our white female now has white eggs tucked underneath her tail, she has burrowed into the rocks and created a nice little den for herself. Everything that I have been reading on the internet seems to be conflicting information regarding breeding. What we are wondering is, are they the same species? How long will she have these eggs and what color will the fry be if they in fact hatch. I've read it typically takes 3-4 weeks for them to arrive. Anyone with some information would be so helpful!!! Here are a few pictures of our cray! They get along great, however since having her eggs the female is isolating herself in a den she dug from under the rock we have placed in the tank.

 

With out knowing exactly what you have its hard to tell if they can breed. But the signs are looking good.

 

Not seeing any pics?

 

I apologize, I am new to the site and thought I had figured out how to post the photos of our crayfish mates.

 

Here are pictures of when we had found them mating. And yesterday I took photos once I realized she had eggs tucked under her tail!

 

Wow! Cool. I guess it's just gonna have to be a wait and see lol! Sorry! Maybe someone will know, but I have no clue how to differentiate between species of crays.

Edited to add: most of the time, if they are different species, and DO actually produce offspring, the offspring will be infertile. If they are close enough in relation (sometimes), or the especially if they're the same species, then their babies will be fertile

 

Wow! Cool. I guess it's just gonna have to be a wait and see lol! Sorry! Maybe someone will know, but I have no clue how to differentiate between species of crays.

Lol. Hopefully! It's been pretty neat to watch all of this happen and all of my coworkers are so curious what to expect. We bought a fish tank to have something nice to look at occasionally in the workplace, and it has become a huge hit!

 

Please keep us updated!! Can't wait to see babies! (Fingers crossed of course!)

 

Awesome photos. Sorry, can't help with ID or looking after the babies. New to the whole cray thing myself. I have two Blue Yabbies (definitely Australian)

I googled your Vanilla Specter Lobster as I am in Australia and it doesn't look or sound familiar (not that I would have any idea, really), and found this:

The White Specter Crayfish is a beautiful white variant of the similar species of the Electric Blue Crayfish (Procambarus alleni). This crayfish is also commonly known as the Vanilla Crawfish or Vanilla Lobster, though true lobsters do not exist in freshwater. This species originates from the Southeastern United States

 

Awesome photos. Sorry, can't help with ID or looking after the babies. New to the whole cray thing myself. I have two Blue Yabbies (definitely Australian)

I googled your Vanilla Specter Lobster as I am in Australia and it doesn't look or sound familiar (not that I would have any idea, really), and found this:

The White Specter Crayfish is a beautiful white variant of the similar species of the Electric Blue Crayfish (Procambarus alleni). This crayfish is also commonly known as the Vanilla Crawfish or Vanilla Lobster, though true lobsters do not exist in freshwater. This species originates from the Southeastern United States

Awesome! I haven't come across that page so I will read more into it, thank you for sharing the link! I am leaning towards them both being clarkiI versus the allenI species. Regardless, my cray have made very good tank mates and it looks like whatever species they are, they were still able to reproduce. I can't wait to see what color they come out to be!

 

jillianelena, following you so I can see the upcoming babies!

...tried posting that message on your profile page, but some error occurred.. so I figured I'd post it here

 

The White Specter Crayfish is a beautiful white variant of the similar species of the Electric Blue Crayfish (Procambarus alleni). [...] This species originates from the Southeastern United States

I KNEW I'd seen it somewhere! My cousins, brother and I used to get bit all the time by those little beasties!! Ha! ... who am I kidding... it was mostly my cousin because he couldn't figure out how to swing across a creek with a rope!! (and they usually attached themselves to my cousins shorts - in the buttocks area :hilarious ! I only thought I lost a toe (just) once... nope. I still got all ten!! Here, we call 'em crawdads though... yup, that's a southern scientific name right thur!

J/k... it wasn't the white variety.

 

I KNEW I'd seen it somewhere! My cousins, brother and I used to get bit all the time by those little beasties!! Ha! ... who am I kidding... it was mostly my cousin because he couldn't figure out how to swing across a creek with a rope!! (and they usually attached themselves to my cousins shorts - in the buttocks area :hilarious ! I only thought I lost a toe (just) once... nope. I still got all ten!! Here, we call 'em crawdads though... yup, that's a southern scientific name right thur!

J/k... it wasn't the white variety.

We call them crawdads here as well! The first time I had ever seen them called Crayfish was when I was searching them online to purchase!

 

And that's all I ever knew then as, crayfish. First time I heard them as crawdads I thought I miss heard it or, better yet, when I was reading a book and it kept saying crawdads I literally thought it was an entirely different creature. Took me a while to clue in that crawdad and crayfish are the same thing.