Artificial rearing of Cambarellus shufeldtii eggs

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:49 pm

[Admin: This topic was split from another thread and made into a new topic...hence the sudden start of the first post]

Interesting observation. Just to add one more observation point....I am also in the middle of hatching C. shufeldtii eggs that I have removed from a dead female. The 30+ eggs have been developing in a very fine meshed net very close to the bubble output of my sponge filter since last Friday. In the first day or two I removed 2 eggs that turned orange (fungused), but the rest have been going strong.

The female that died had just started carrying the eggs the day before her death, so this will be an interesting experiment to see if crayfish eggs can be artificially reared pretty much from the time of fertilization to the time of hatching. I should know in a week or two if the young will hatch.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:04 pm

This is great news if it works in general! Can't wait to hear more.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:12 pm

It may only work because the eggs had already hatched and so were capable of absorbing oxygen through their gills. I did nothing other than observe them and keep them protected through isolation.

However, I am now curious to find out what would happen if fertilized eggs were removed from a female and placed in an egg tumbler used by fish breeders to maximize their yields of fry. Considering that we all seem to lose a lot of eggs during the early stages of development, this would be an experiment worth trying.

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:03 pm

That's basically what I am trying right now. The eggs are gently tumbled around in the net by the air bubbles. If these eggs hatch I don't see any reason why you should not be successful with hatching C. diminutus eggs in an egg tumbler. The only problem I see is that the eggs are pretty well attached to the female, so it will be be very difficult to hold such a small animal still while trying to scrape the eggs off without hurting the female. Hence, even if this works, I would still prefer the natural method unless I find another dead female with eggs.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:07 pm

I must have missed something. I didn't know you were doing this right now.

I'll look forward to hearing how it works for you.

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:13 pm

You must have missed my earlier post in this thread.

It's the third post up from my last message.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:53 am

Mustafa wrote:You must have missed my earlier post in this thread. It's the third post up from my last message.

Yes, I guess I did miss that!

Keep us updated. It sounds like they are developing in there well enough if they have not all begun to decompose.

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:00 am

I'll keep the updates coming. I found another fungused egg today and removed it, but the rest are still going strong.

pturley · Post by **pturley** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:00 am

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:22 pm

pturley wrote:Mustafa,
I am very interested in the results of rearing these in a net. I would certainly be interested in contributing to a paper on your results.

BTW: This would be well worthy of publication in a scientific journal, not just a hobbiest publication.

Why not. Might as well write a paper if this succeeds. I'll have to see if this has been attempted before in the scientific literature. Contact me about this per email. Although I have waded through countless scientific articles over the years, I've never really published anything in a scientific journal before and don't really know what steps to go through for the journals to print a possible paper. This might be a good exercise in paper writing for journals, as I am sure that there will be quite a few things to write about in the future...

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:58 pm

You could also use an egg tumbler that people use for African cichlids. Vera has done this a few times.

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:32 pm

CanadianCray, Yucca already mentioned the egg tumbler idea above. Good to hear that someone has tried the tumbler method before. Maybe Vera can describe what exact she did and with what species. If she has pictures that would be great, too.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my "setup" and the eggs in the net:

That big blob on the left is a big bubble coming out of the filter. The eggs don't tumble around wildly in the net but are gently "rocked" once in a while. The fact that water (and the oxygen in it) can flow all around the eggs due to the holes in the net is a big plus.

That "creature" on the net is a snowball shrimp eating the diatoms that had grown on the net.

As you can see the eggs are turning more clearish as they develop. The developing empryo is clearly visible. In the first few days of development all eggs were dark black with nothing visible in them. That odd looking egg on the upper right is probably dead and in the early stages of fungusing.

As the eggs have been clearly developing over the last week, I don't see any reason why the eggs should not hatch. I'll provide more updates as things develop.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:23 pm

Excellent. I've been reading all about egg tumblers over the past couple days, so this thread is exactly what I have been thinking about. Your eggs are definitely developing well right now.

All I can do is wait for updates.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:57 pm

Excellent information and thanks for the pictures of your setup. I think that if a berried female dies anyone can try to save at least some of the eggs using this method. I had tried removing eggs from a dead RCS and 6 of 30 eggs hatched even though I just had them in a small container with an airstone. I am eager to see how your experiments work out

.

pturley · Post by **pturley** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:59 am