New Crayfish Baby!

So, it’s been forever since I’ve been here, and even longer since I’ve posted. I decided to come back and introduce my newest baby, a white crayfish I named Ivory. :3

I don’t know the sex, but I’ve been assuming female— I’d love to know the best way to sex a crayfish, if I have to pick her up I don’t think that’d be a problem because she’s pretty chill.

Anyway! She’s in a 10-gallon all by herself, the last snail that had been in the tank before is in another tank, I didn’t want it to get eaten in case... y’know, crayfish do that kind of thing. I know crabs do, at least.

Here she is. She’s been having fun just traipsing around and feeling stuff with her feet. She’s adorable.

 

Pretty!

Adult crays can be sexed - they look different from below. I'm not sure on the specifics, but I'm sure google could find you some reference pics to use!

 

Pretty!

Adult crays can be sexed - they look different from below. I'm not sure on the specifics, but I'm sure google could find you some reference pics to use!

She’s pretty small for now. Should I wait until she’s older, or the next time I go to feed her?

 

She's beautiful!!! I've been wanting to make a 10 gallon build with a blue one for a while now. Might be getting very close. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

 

I'd wait until she's closer to full grown.

 

How big is she anyway?

 

flip the cray upside down. look at joint the tail and abdomen meet. where the legs and swimmerets also meet. if there is a set of claspers(looks like dwarfed legs tucked under pointing to the head) then it a male, if there are only swimmerets then legs, then it is a female.

I have 2 females and 1 male in a 10 gallon that I'm breeding.

 

flip the cray upside down. look at joint the tail and abdomen meet. where the legs and swimmerets also meet. if there is a set of claspers(looks like dwarfed legs tucked under pointing to the head) then it a male, if there are only swimmerets then legs, then it is a female.

I have 2 females and 1 male in a 10 gallon that I'm breeding.

You can keep that many in a 10 gallon without cannibalistic behavior?

 

Yes, it is a successful setup. the crayfish are large now(2.5'' to 3.5"),I'm going to up the number to a dozen small clay pots to make hidey holes, lots of live plants(baby's tears; I think) and live food (tubifex worms)

IMG_20180308_2138154

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Hidey holes

IMG_20180308_2354092

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Female. large swimmerets, and no claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

Female. large swimmerets, and no claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

IMG_20180308_2356379

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Male. Small swimmerets, and large set of claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

Male. Small swimmerets, and large set of claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

IMG_20180308_2350149

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Snipped off the top claw with a sharp pair of wire cutters. I would rather do this than have...

I snipped the top claws off with a very sharp pair of wire cutter to prevent them from killing each other since I want them to breed.

 

That may be why it's working for you and they're not cannibalistic - they can't pinch each other. So maybe other people shouldn't try this because it wouldn't work without removing their weapons.

 

Yes, it is a successful setup. the crayfish are large now(2.5'' to 3.5"),I'm going to up the number to a dozen small clay pots to make hidey holes, lots of live plants(baby's tears; I think) and live food (tubifex worms)

IMG_20180308_2138154

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Hidey holes

IMG_20180308_2354092

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Female. large swimmerets, and no claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

Female. large swimmerets, and no claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

IMG_20180308_2356379

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Male. Small swimmerets, and large set of claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

Male. Small swimmerets, and large set of claspers at joint of abdomen/tail

IMG_20180308_2350149

• Kasshan
• Mar 9, 2018

Snipped off the top claw with a sharp pair of wire cutters. I would rather do this than have...

I snipped the top claws off with a very sharp pair of wire cutter to prevent them from killing each other since I want them to breed.

Oh. You had me excited thinking I could maybe keep two females in my future 10 gallon build. I'd rather not remove body parts, but to each their own. Do you see any additional signs of stress from not being able to defend themselves?

 

That may be why it's working for you and they're not cannibalistic - they can't pinch each other. So maybe other people shouldn't try this because it wouldn't work without removing their weapons.

an obvious conclusion.

Oh. You had me excited thinking I could maybe keep two females in my future 10 gallon build. I'd rather not remove body parts, but to each their own. Do you see any additional signs of stress from not being able to defend themselves?

they carry on as normal and are healthy, except scuffles will only just be scuffles now; not deadly. since I want to minimize risk in a breeding project.

I had two white crayfish females two years ago in a 30 gallon (claws/weapons intact) with platies and a JD for about a year without incidence (but this example is more a one-off and an uncharacteristically peaceful scenario for clarkiis), I had loads of hidey holes for everyone. I gave up vanilla crays because finding a male was impossible in my local area, and I had to make room for my EBJD project. but I am sure if the females were breeding, they wouldve turn murderous instead of bluffing with claws up only. I think my two females were not aggressive because they were virgin and had no need for extreme deadly territorial conflicts.

Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), which is what I believe Petco's "vanilla lobster" is, is a bit beastly. ive kept numerous crayfish in the past, and the first was a wild red clarkiI my exgf found on the lawn somehow that appeared out of no where. it was berried and in her ignorance scraped the eggs off thinking it was something else. that crayfish hated ppl and would kill anything in its tank.

I did have a prolific marbled crayfish colony in a 40 gallon and with little incidence, however, that species is docile in comparison, I would not trust a berried clarkiI especially when they get bigger.
anytime you are keeping more than one cray there is an element risk and luck as with many other things in the hobby

 

an obvious conclusion.

Yes, but I think it needed to be said so some people reading this thread don't think it'll always work out. It's easy to miss a line in the middle of a long post.

 

Well, I cleaned quite a lot today and didn’t think about having to grab my crustacean child to look underneath. BUT, she did do this weird thing by trying to climb up the glass, and I got a video of it because she stayed there for a minute. I’m going to look it up myself, but for anyone else with a keen eye, here’s a couple of screenshots of what she was doing.






That last one is before she went back to just going about her business. XD

 

Update: I looked at quite a lot of reference pictures of crayfish (my mind is strange in that I have to see the same thing multiple times before it clicks) and I’ve determined she’s female, like I thought! If I’m wrong, though, someone please correct me.

 

She looks female to me too, unless young male crays don't grow their claspers until they're adults.

 

She looks female to me too, unless young male crays don't grow their claspers until they're adults.

then it must be a eunuch, no, no, no, its a girl 100%. lol
once a crayfish goes from micro to macro at about an inch one can easily tell gender.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

I meant to post here sooner with a picture of Ivory’s tank, but some things happened. I have a picture now, though!





Don’t worry about the slight blurriness of the water, I just removed the last few live plants from the tank (Ivory hasn’t eaten any of them YET, but I just want to be sure), put in a couple of new decorations, and did a small water change. The sand I have is nice, it just tends to get kicked up easily.

Ivory has five places to hide— I’ve had that big log thing since I got my first Betta years ago, and I thought it’d be perfect. The two glow-caves, the skull, and the “broken” pot in the back are good hiding places. And there’s a single fake plant, because that’s the only one I ever bought... I’ll probably go get a couple more soon to make sure the tank doesn’t look bare.

And here is my crustacean child, questioning what I’m doing taking pictures of her. XD

 

Update: Ivory molted! I don’t know if it happened last night after I went to bed or early this morning, but her old shell is sitting outside her log. She’s inside the log just chilling, but there’s no way for me to get a good picture of her. I did get a picture of the old shell, before she starts eating it.

 

So first: more fake plants! The tank is much more colorful now, without the future risk of plants being eaten by Ivory. :3




And... my crustacean child attempted a very daring escape. Unfortunately for her, she miscalculated how high she could actually go, along with the fact that she can’t grip glass or the heater cord. She gave up after about a minute of trying. She was on the filter earlier, I thought she was stuck but I put a hard plastic straw into the water and before I could reach her with it, she jumped off.




Child, no. You belong in water. You cannot escape. My cat will eat you.

 

When your human catches you checking out escape routes and you don’t know what to do:

 

Hey!

I just randomly remembered this thread, and wanted to share with you, as a fellow crayfish lover, I finally got my own crayfish!!! Lol. Not that you asked me to or anything. I did end up with a stereotypical blue one, but my girlfriend and I love him/her (not sure on gender yet). Here's some pictures. Sorry about so many, I couldn't pick a favorite.

 

Hey!

I just randomly remembered this thread, and wanted to share with you, as a fellow crayfish lover, I finally got my own crayfish!!! Lol. Not that you asked me to or anything. I did end up with a stereotypical blue one, but my girlfriend and I love him/her (not sure on gender yet). Here's some pictures. Sorry about so many, I couldn't pick a favorite. View attachment 426496 View attachment 426497 View attachment 426498 View attachment 426499

Oh my goodness, what a pretty baby! I’ve never seen one that looks only slightly blue, that’s amazing!

And I always love hearing about other peoples’ fish or invertebrates, don’t worry.

 

In other news, yesterday I learned an important lesson: Ivory+Glass Catfish=DEATH. She immediately caught and ate one of the four Glass Cats I bought, so I put the other three in my 20 Gallon far away from her murderous claws.

But, either she doesn’t see my new Japanese Algae Eater shrimp, or she just doesn’t care. I needed someone to take care of my algae problem and I knew I’d be the most upset if a Pleco ended up dying. So far all 4 of them are fine, fingers crossed!

 

In other news, yesterday I learned an important lesson: Ivory+Glass Catfish=DEATH. She immediately caught and ate one of the four Glass Cats I bought, so I put the other three in my 20 Gallon far away from her murderous claws.

But, either she doesn’t see my new Japanese Algae Eater shrimp, or she just doesn’t care. I needed someone to take care of my algae problem and I knew I’d be the most upset if a Pleco ended up dying. So far all 4 of them are fine, fingers crossed!

Oh my gosh yes! Mine loves feeder minnows. I had some in the tank previously for the cycle, and when I decided to get a crayfish I thought okay well it may eat a couple over time. No. Lol. I've had him a week today, and he's already eaten 5 of them.

 

Oh my gosh yes! Mine loves feeder minnows. I had some in the tank previously for the cycle, and when I decided to get a crayfish I thought okay well it may eat a couple over time. No. Lol. I've had him a week today, and he's already eaten 5 of them.
View attachment 427262

Crayfish are just eating machines. Anytime I drop an algae wafer or shrimp pellet in she immediately sprints for it.

 

Crayfish are just eating machines. Anytime I drop an algae wafer or shrimp pellet in she immediately sprints for it.

Mine does that too. Also uses that kind of food to lure a minnow close enough to earn himself a live meal.

 

Another update: the shrimp are all fine, for one. It’s fun watching them zip around the tank. Ivory cornered one today and it slipped away pretty quickly.

And I got a Dwarf Blue Gourami! I read somewhere that if you’d like a fish to live with your Crayfish to make things colorful and a bit more exciting that Gouramis are one of the fish best suited. I read that they’re very quick... I’m certainly not disappointed. Ivory saw the new fish (I’ve decided to name her Isi) and went for her, but every time, IsI would inch up and away. Watching Ivory get irritated and try to reach for IsI was hilarious.

Also, she attempted to catch the shrimp when I dropped some food in. It didn’t work. So she’s frustrated and pouting under her log.

Here’s a couple of pictures of Isi— I named her after one of my favorite Monster High characters... don’t judge.

 

I would strongly advise keeping the gourami with the crayfish - you're likely to come home to the cray eating the DG after it killed it. DGs are not very fast and active. Not very fair to risk the DGs life. If you want a cray, you're limiting your safe stocking, but that's something you sacrifice by keeping a cray.

 

I would strongly advise keeping the gourami with the crayfish - you're likely to come home to the cray eating the DG after it killed it. DGs are not very fast and active. Not very fair to risk the DGs life. If you want a cray, you're limiting your safe stocking, but that's something you sacrifice by keeping a cray.

So far this Gourami has been very quick, and now Ivory hasn’t tried to catch her. I wouldn’t have put IsI in with Ivory if I didn’t think they could coexist. There were a few swipes from Ivory, but now she’s just sitting inside one of her caves and only trying to swat at the shrimp every once in a while.

Idk man, I read in multiple places that Gouramis could live with crayfish— and I don’t know if IsI is exactly a dwarf Gourami, that’s what she was sold as, but she’s much quicker than I expected. I would have gotten a more docile type of Cichlid, but as far as space, a Gourami and shrimp are the best options.

The shrimp are still fine, btw. They zip around the tank like nobody’s business and they’re taking care of the algae really well.

 

They haven't been together long - I really don't think it'll work out long term.

 

Cohabitation. <3

Plus, Ivory... she was doing a weird tap-dance thing with her feet for a few minutes, I guess trying to find food in the sand? She’s stopped going after Isi, even when it would be easy to grab her.

 

Is that one of the "vanilla lobsters"? It will end up growing over 14" and requiring a 50 gallon basically to itself.
Edit: this really only applies if you got it at PetSmart/Petco, since they actually sell lobsters and not dwarf crayfish. I'm glad you're really happy about your new pet, but I agree that mixing her with the DG is not the best idea