Crayfish Lost Claw

Hi! Today I noticed that my crayfish has long lost a claw. He doesn’t have any competitors, the only other thing in the tank are pond snails. I haven’t SEEN him eat in a while, and honestly when I put in food it doesn’t seem like he ate anything, because of this I haven’t been feeding him as much (because it pollutes the water). I belive he is a marbled crayfish, I have had him for about a year or two. Water quality is fine, he isn’t very active (although I have been seeing him walk around). Any ideas?

 

Chances are is that your crayfish is about to molt. When crayfish are preparing to molt, they generally will not eat.

 

I'm no expert on crawdads, but it sounds like pre-molting behavior to me too.

Anytime I've had shrimp, crabs, or lobsters molt, they've usually slowed down their movement, eaten less, and eventually go into hiding for a day or two, and only come back out once their new exoskeleton is hard enough to defend against attacks.

As for the lost claw, that can be from anything. I once had a fiddler crab lose a claw because he was foraging through gravel. He got it caught under a larger piece, pulled, and it came right off. I think maybe tiny imperfections (or just simple stress) can cause certain limbs to just collapse at the joint. Not a big problem for these animals, in most cases.

 

I'm no expert on crawdads, but it sounds like pre-molting behavior to me too.

Anytime I've had shrimp, crabs, or lobsters molt, they've usually slowed down their movement, eaten less, and eventually go into hiding for a day or two, and only come back out once their new exoskeleton is hard enough to defend against attacks.

As for the lost claw, that can be from anything. I once had a fiddler crab lose a claw because he was foraging through gravel. He got it caught under a larger piece, pulled, and it came right off. I think maybe tiny imperfections (or just simple stress) can cause certain limbs to just collapse at the joint. Not a big problem for these animals, in most cases.

Chances are is that your crayfish is about to molt. When crayfish are preparing to molt, they generally will not eat.

Hi! Thanks for the responses, but my crayfish is full grown, and I have seen mounting behaviour. I haven’t seen him eat a pellet in AT LEAST a month. That is not normal mounting. The average lifespan of these guys is 2-3 years, I have had him about 1 year. I read that they can lose claws do to and improper diet, but how am I able to fix that if he won’t eat.

I'm no expert on crawdads, but it sounds like pre-molting behavior to me too.

Anytime I've had shrimp, crabs, or lobsters molt, they've usually slowed down their movement, eaten less, and eventually go into hiding for a day or two, and only come back out once their new exoskeleton is hard enough to defend against attacks.

As for the lost claw, that can be from anything. I once had a fiddler crab lose a claw because he was foraging through gravel. He got it caught under a larger piece, pulled, and it came right off. I think maybe tiny imperfections (or just simple stress) can cause certain limbs to just collapse at the joint. Not a big problem for these animals, in most cases.

I just read the last part, that could be but he has never lost a claw, but it is possible he just lost it while moving around.

 

You cannot just stop or reduce feeding because it pollutes the water he should be fed every day and what's not eaten taken out,he should have a regular supply of vegetables to condition his shell to molt, weekly water changes sees to pollutants and cray need pristine water, have you thought you could be starving him to death to a point where he now cannot eat, it's also possible he deliberately lost a claw to eat it as he's hungry

 

You cannot just stop or reduce feeding because it pollutes the water he should be fed every day and what's not eaten taken out,he should have a regular supply of vegetables to condition his shell to molt, weekly water changes sees to pollutants and cray need pristine water, have you thought you could be starving him to death to a point where he now cannot eat, it's also possible he deliberately lost a claw to eat it as he's hungry

I will try feeding him every day again. He just hasn’t seemed interested in food. I do weekly water changes of about 50%, however I also don’t want to provide food for the snails in there to grow more populated. Would and assasian snail kill my crayfish (or vise versa) if I put one in there to help the snail population?

This thread has no point anymore. The crayfish had a pellet still in there from the other day he didn’t eat, so if he was that hungry he had food. I just came down this morning and he is dead.

Also I was feeding him at least three times a week, if he was really that hungry I think he would have eaten what I put in there. He didn’t even touch the food.

 

Hmm... It would still be worth figuring out what happened. From what I know they don't just "drop claws" and I have never seen one self cannibalize. Parasite maybe?

 

If the claw had been trapped or diseased and bothering him he would loos it that's a defence all crustaceans have and he would then eat it they are canibalistic by nature