Dwarf Crayfish Molting

I have a baby dwarf crayfish in my ten gallon tank with three emano shrimp, two nerite snails, a honey gourami , two black skirt tetras , and a blue gourami. He is doing well in his three caves and is eating well . He molted last night and stayed in his cave all night . Now he is out and about the tank. How did his shell grow so quickly? Is it grown? He had shed about 12-16 hrs before he came out of the cave .

Also , how often will my baby crayfish molt.

P.S. I got my crayfish two days ago at my LFS .

 

shedding is a completely normal behavior but it leaves the crayfish vulnerable to attack, your blue Gourami will probably find a way to eat the crayfish sooner or later, additionally you might want to increase the number of black skirt tetras to at least six

 

Actually the blue gourami stays away form the my cray(Otto). When the cray first was introduced to the tank, he snapped at everything near him, Including the blue gourami . He never caught anything though. I think he was just scared. Do you know when Otto will shed again as a baby cray?

 

They shed once a month. You need to remove the tetra's. Tetra's are meant to be in groups of 6+ and your tank can't handle 6.

 

also a blue gourami will outgrow your tank. Sorry but you should probably rehome him or get a larger tank.

 

also a blue gourami will outgrow your tank. Sorry but you should probably rehome him or get a larger tank.

Your right, but it's not that it will out grow the op tank it's that they like to have swimming room and a 10gal isn't enough. I second what you said!

 

oops! got my facts wrong.

 

oops! got my facts wrong.

Lol it's all good.

 

Just out of curiosity, how big is the dwarf crayfish? Are you sure it's a dwarf?

 

A dwarf should be only 2.5 inches at max. Can we see a picture, so we can clarify if it's a dwarf or not. If it's not your in big trouble. Regular crayfish get 5-8 inches. They will attack and eat other fish if they aren't well feed.

 

Basically one inch

 

It's a Mexican orange dwarf crayfish. Congrats

 

What tank size will I need to keep everybody in there now ?

 

What tank size will I need to keep everybody in there now ?

Well you should rehome the blue gourami and rehome the tetra's. Your dwarf is just fine. If you want you could add some ember tetra's since they are smaller

 

I would get a 29 gallon and up the tetra school to at least 6. You can leave the honey gourami in the ten gallon though.

 

Basically one inch

That isn't a baby then!! More of a young adult actually.

I would say their max size is more like 2 inches rather than 2.5. The females being much larger than males. Some males might not even reach an inch and a half.

 

That isn't a baby then!! More of a young adult actually.

I would say their max size is more like 2 inches rather than 2.5. The females being much larger than males. Some males might not even reach an inch and a half.

True

 

My crayfish just molted for the first time, right before I was getting ready to do a water change. Is it still ok to do so? I hope so, it's a 75 gallon that I do RODI water in, so I made 25 gallons of water - the nitrates are really high right now (between 30 and 40ppm) - so I wanted to do two 40% water changes in the next couple days to get them down to normal levels.

 

I'm not sure on the water change, but be careful on how low the kh and gh get by using RODI water as if it gets to low the crayfish might have issues molting and die. It recently happened to Aquapros although his kh was super low but it happens.

 

I use equilibrium, alkaline buffer and acid buffer to get the RODI water at 5 dkh, 10 dgh, and a ph of 7.2.

 

Yes, you can do the water change. The nitrates would be far more harmful. (pour the water in away from where he is hiding and hardening)

 

Yes, you can do the water change. The nitrates would be far more harmful. (pour the water in away from where he is hiding and hardening)

He didn't pick a great hiding spot for himself - side of the tank next to some driftwood, but very open. I put 3 upside down flowerpots in the tank for him thinking he would go there.

Do you think any of my stock would hurt him?

2 Juvenile angelfish, 1 dwarf gourami, 1 apisto borelli, 7 emerald green corys (know they won't), 5 otos (know they won't), 1 apple snail (was told it was a mystery snail, definitely not), 4 golden zebra danios.

I actually worry about the apple snail getting on his molted shell.... Any idea how long the process of him recovering takes? New to crayfish. I had him in a 10 gallon, but a 2 year old my wife was babysitting decided to throw a whole container of shrimp pellets in it. Even after fully emptying the tank, scrubbing it and replacing the gravel, the nitrite and ammonia skyrocketed - probably from the food debris that got into the filter. So I moved him into the 75 gallon. The only other tank I have is a fluval edge 6 gallon with 2 dwarf pea puffers in it.

 

Oh dear, I wouldn't wouldn't be comfortable for my electric blue with my dwarf gourami. If you slowly put your hand in and move it tword him, where does he scurry?

 

he doesn't - he's in between some driftwood. The DG has been leaving him alone so far.

 

I would try to get that 10 cleaned up and put him back in there. (I know that is not possible right now). A couple of days and they are good.

 

he doesn't - he's in between some driftwood. The DG has been leaving him alone so far.

That's nerve wracking, I'm so sorry. Maybe lights off early? My cray moves around in the dark, my DG not really. (Cray has her own tank)

 

Here is the current situation:




He's been in there 4 days, I haven't seen the DG have any aggression towards him - or even show any interest in him. He's usually getting into short spats with the Angelfish, but nothing major. He's fairly chill - the only time I've seen him get real aggressive is when I brought up the tank to 80 degrees over the course of 3 days. Think it set him in the mood. I ended up dropping it back down to 77.5

The only fish that has shown any signs of aggression is the BorrellI followe him the first day I put him in, and nipped his tail. That was it. The danios harrass him a little, but more annoyance then aggression - he actually tries to ambush the danios - funny to watch.

 

He should be able to protect himself there. I thought he was a Mexican dwarf (1.5-2 inches full grown), he looks like a tangerine. Beautiful guy.

 

That's nerve wracking, I'm so sorry. Maybe lights off early? My cray moves around in the dark, my DG not really. (Cray has her own tank)

I actually had the lights off before I turned them back on to take that last picture. I just dropped wafers to the other side of the tank - the DG loves hikarI algae waffers - almost as much as the cory's. Strange little fish that one is.

 

I have to drop wafers after lights out or my corys would never eat. (Yes, my gourami loves them)

 

I thought this was a mexican crayfish. Yikes. Tangerines get aggressive, don't they?

I have to drop wafers after lights out or my corys would never eat. (Yes, my gourami loves them)

My cory's eat right next to the gourami. I usually drop 3 wafers and they are mostly gone in 20 minutes - the apple snail devouring anything left over.

 

I thought this was a mexican crayfish. Yikes. Tangerines get aggressive, don't they?

How big is it? (Actually what did you pay, that will tell. lol)

 

I would say he's just under 2 inches. I paid $12.

 

That is going rate for a Mexican Dwarf. They get 2" max and he looked bigger to me plus you said it was his first molt since you got him so I figured he was young. I think he is bigger than my Electric Blue that will get about 5". Aggression is about the same actually, it's just that Tangerines, White Spectres and Electric Blues have bigger bodies to work with.

 

Actually, just estimated again with a ruler - and he's more like 2.5 inches. Also found my receipt - I paid $14.99 for him.

Looking at all the pictures I can find of both the CPO's and tangerine - he definitely looks more like the photos of the CPO's - with his claws not as pronounced and a lighter coloration - but based on size, maybe he's not a dwarf at all. I really trust nothing my LFS says anymore.

I guess I need to find out for sure - because I wanted to make the move back to the 10 gallon once it was cycled again. But if it's a tangerine, it needs a 20 gallon.

So far I'm not missing any fish.

 

Yeah, gotta love a lot of our LFS nowdays...NOT
Well it doesn't matter, he is beautiful.

The 10 will be able to work for quite a while because he is still small. I think the next 3 or 4 sheds will give you the information you need. If you have to move to a twenty later, just move the filter with him.

 

The 10 will be able to work for quite a while because he is still small. I think the next 3 or 4 sheds will give you the information you need. If you have to move to a twenty later, just move the filter with him.

I'm pretty positive this is a tangerine and not a dwarf. He molted AGAIN! Yikes! That's 2 molts in 10 days. I moved him out of the 75 gallon and back to the 10 for now. He chomped on one of my otos then a danio went missing. Bad crayfish! He definitely ate a lot in the 75 gallon, swiping the cory's out of the way for their algae wafers. He would climb high on driftwood and try to land on the danios as they would pass by. Was quite humorous to watch - but I do like my fish in one piece.

I can tell Samuel L. Crayfish is quite mad at me. He glares at me at night before bed as I have the 10 gallon on my nightstand. He's been trying to escape here and there - but the attempts have be futile.

I'm considering starting my 44 gallon up again and moving him there with a couple angelfish. I'm thinking if I don't give him too much vertical space to climb in there (tall tank) - the angels should be ok - but who knows. Very crafty and plotting mudbug he is.