Page 1 of 13

Introducing: Cambarellus diminutus

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:07 pm
by YuccaPatrol
I will post a detailed report soon, but here are a couple photos of the newly collected Cambarellus diminutus.

In short, my field collection trip was a success and I was able to collect a small group of individuals as well as identify numerous potential collection sites for future trips. Before I return to collect more, I must first get a positive identification on these, complete some thorough water testing, and determine that my aquaria are suitable and safe for these tiny little crays.

Image


Image

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:22 pm
by CanadianCray
I know some guys in Germany would be drooling over those.

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:30 pm
by Newjohn
YuccaPatrol

It is good to hear that your trip was a success. :-D
Thank You for the Photo's.

I look forward to the Updates.

Germany !
Any new Crayfish in this Hobby, is something to drool over. :lol: :lol:

John

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:08 pm
by YuccaPatrol
Thanks Newjohn and CanadianCray.

Here's one more photo. I desperately need to clean the aquarium glass inside and out, but there is some added detail in this shot worth posting. . .

Image

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:15 pm
by milalic
very, very nice.

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:14 am
by zwergkrebszuechter
CanadianCray wrote:I know some guys in Germany would be drooling over those.
Yes they are. :-D


Do you happen to come to Florida in the future? There are great species like Cambarellus schmitti and blacki. I have not seen photos of black yet, but schmitti is awesome.

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:33 am
by Neonshrimp
Thank you for sharing the beautiful specimens! Are these adult crays? Best wishes on your future field collection trips :) .

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:45 pm
by CanadianCray
zwergkrebszuechter wrote:
CanadianCray wrote:I know some guys in Germany would be drooling over those.
Yes they are. :-D


Do you happen to come to Florida in the future? There are great species like Cambarellus schmitti and blacki. I have not seen photos of black yet, but schmitti is awesome.
LOL I was thinking of you Andy when I first saw those.

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:05 pm
by Mustafa
This is great, Yucca!! I hope they breed just as readily as their C. shufeldtii cousins. Keep us updated!

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:39 pm
by Gregor Samsa Mendel
YuccaPatrol--They're adorable! Is that little 2 cm thing in the top picture an adult?

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:07 pm
by YuccaPatrol
Neonshrimp wrote:Thank you for sharing the beautiful specimens! Are these adult crays? Best wishes on your future field collection trips :) .
Yes, these are adults. From everything I have read, C. diminutus does not grow larger than 2.5 cm.

Future trips will be more productive. Even though I knew where to find the right streams where they live, it still took half a day to figure out exactly where they were in the stream and how to best collect them. These streams also had an abundance of ghost shrimp, and every time I put the net in the water it came up with lots of these.

zwergkrebszuechter wrote: Do you happen to come to Florida in the future? There are great species like Cambarellus schmitti and blacki. I have not seen photos of black yet, but schmitti is awesome.
I know that C. Blacki lives about 50 miles east of where I was collecting in Alabama, so I will definitely try to collect them in the future too. I'll have to really do my research because they have only been found in one single pond.

Mustafa wrote:This is great, Yucca!! I hope they breed just as readily as their C. shufeldtii cousins. Keep us updated!
I hope so too. A more detailed update and full description of my collecting trip will come as soon as I finish the water testing and get a look at these under stronger magnification.

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:15 pm
by Mustafa
YuccaPatrol wrote:These streams also had an abundance of ghost shrimp, and every time I put the net in the water it came up with lots of these.
Interesting....you might want to catch some of those, too, as they *might* be Palaemonetes kadiakensis (the "other" freshwater ghost shrimp). Both P. paludosus and P. kadiakensis occur in the gulf region as far as I know.

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:48 pm
by YuccaPatrol
Mustafa,

I did bring home some of them because I just couldn't help myself. They do not have the same orange band markings of the ghosts that I have purchased as feeders. Same basic body shape, but I haven't really looked closely at them other than to notice that they didn't have any orange on them.

When I first started looking for the crays, I saw so many ghost shrimp that I assumed that the crays would be easier to spot among the debris than the ghosts. It turned out that the crays were MUCH harder to see.

Had I not made that assumption, I probably would have found crays much sooner because I am certain that I was dumping nets that contained crays at the beginning.

I'll try to get a photo of these ghosts soon. (I sure have my work cut out for me over the next week or two)

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 8:28 pm
by Mustafa
YuccaPatrol wrote: I'll try to get a photo of these ghosts soon. (I sure have my work cut out for me over the next week or two)
Try to take a closeup of the rostrum, too, if you can. P. kadiakensis has a shorter, stockier rostrum than P. paludosus.

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:00 am
by badflash
Keep us posted on the behavior of these crays too. Are they diggers? Do they eat plants? Are they agressive?

Great work!