Pregnent Brown Crayfish. Need help

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 7:41 pm

Doing a water change in my tank today I pulled a crayfish that has been hiding out of the ship tonight. We'll she's pregnent and now I need to do whatever I can to help the survival of the babies. She is in a 29gallon tank right now with 3 4" red belly piranhas along with 2 guppies a minnow and a pleco.

I don't mind getting another tank and setting it up for her, but I just wanted to know what should I do that would help survival ratio. I will probably get some plants and a 10 gallon tank. Any filteration or water conditioners that you could recommend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kam

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:06 am

well went to wally world(walmart) got myself a 10 gallon a 3 stage filter for up to 15 gallons, a 10-30 gallon heater and some nice blue green substrate gravel. Along with a air strip. hopefully she likes the new place, I put a cave in there for her and she went straight to it. Now i'm just wondering if I can get some guppies to put in there or will they threaten the new baby crawfish?

I used all the water from my other established tank. Is there anything I can do to help her out? Also i have frozen brine shrimp do i still need to make a brine shrimp hatcher?

Thanks,

Kam

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:18 pm

The more filtration & earation you have the better. I would not put any fish in there. Once the eggs hatch in about 4 weeks you will need to shake the babies off of her & remove her or she will eat them. ALso you need a lot of hiding places in the baby tank or they will canibalize eachother.

What species is it. Most species prefer unheated tanks.

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:55 am

Well i have a pretty good bio,chemical, and mechanical filter good up to 15 gallons with a homemade sponge end attachment so the babies dont get pulled in. Also put a 10" long air stone in which is also nice. I got the heater because i've heard that i should keep the tank at the same temperature that she was used too. Never heard that I have to take off the babies from the momma or she'll eat them. I'll have to check her later today to see if they have hatched. Also I'm going to start a brine shrimp hatchery tommorow for the babies to feed on.

Should i just hold her in the water and shake her like an english nanny or use any tools to remove the babies. I also need to find some more things to put in the tank as hiding places.

I think the species is Cambarellus maculatus or frickled crayfish. Just a regular brown crayfish from the local pet store.

Any other advice would be appreciated, also i'm leaving to go home for spring break for a week is there anything that I can do before I leave to help increase the chances of survival for the babies. I have a neighbor that I might ask to come and feed the fish and crayfish while i'm gone.

Thanks for the advice my canadian friend.

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 1:14 pm

Yes you should remove the babies after about 3 days. She will be ok for a while but eventually she will eat them all. To take them off you just hold her under water & shake them off. Sometimes if they give me a hard time I hold them in front of the filter return & that usually blows them off.

The main thing for a baby tank is hiding places. MANY MANY MANY hiding places for the babies or they will kill & eat eachother when they molt. You don't need to go to the trouble of brine shrimp. Crushed flake is great. In the summer I actually use old wilted grass climpings & they go nuts over it. After about 1 week flake food is great. Crays should not be fed any kind of live or uncooked shrimp.

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 5:41 pm

Great advice thanks you saved me a lot of time and money with that. She will be removed as soon as the babies are taken off and the fry will have the 10 gallon to themselves.

Besides crushed flakas and wilted lawn clippings do you think they could handle some algea wafers or maybe even the homemade food that i fed to my p's and crayfish? The homemade food does have gelatin so it might not be the best.

I'm going to the lps tommorow to get some supplies, i'll try to buy as much decor for cover as possible.

thanks again for your help canadian, hopefully the eggs will hatch soon as I'm leaving on friday for a week on spring break and I won't be able to shake the babies off if i'm not hear of be able to feed them and take out there mommy. But i'm sure everything will work out, just the timing isn't so perfect. I might use the auto feeder I have on the crayfish tank instead of my p tank. We shall see.

Thanks,

kam

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:00 pm

Absolutly they will go BOLISTIC over algae wafers.... They also luv peas with the skin taken off.

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:28 pm

Sounds good defiently will pick up the wafers and skin some peas tommorrow, I also read on another forum that they like blood worm cubes do you agree because I have a tray in the freezer right now.

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:39 pm

I will be leaving for a week starting tommorow. I just changed 30% of the water and did a gravel vac it's pretty good. What should I put in the tank to feed them, I'm having a neighbor come by to feed my p's everyday. I purchased Bottom Feeder food the discs from hikari and she hasn't taken to it yet. She does like my fish mixture that I give to my p's so I'll have my lady drop one of those in every other day or so. I'm also going to have her add some goldfish flake powder to when I leave.

here is a link with some pics, if anyone wants to help identify that would be great http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index ... try1396997

Anything else I can do to help the situation I bought a bunch more decor for hiding places and cover the intake of the sponge, if there is anything else you can think of let me know.

Thanks for your help everyone you've been a life safer,

Kam

The babies haven't hatched yet, and I won't be around to shake them off, i'm worried she'll eat them but hopefully I will have a good amount of survivors.

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:44 pm

First I would stay away from the blood worms. THey are high in fat & the crays don't get much from them. They need very little meat as the can get plenty of protien from certain veggies.

A good thing to use as food is a piece of potatoe. I soak it overnight to get rid of most of the starch. They will pick at it while you are away.

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:59 pm

Thanks a ton Canadiancray, good advice, i'll go chop up a potato right now and start soaking it. I didn't have any peas in the house so potato will have to do, is the bottom feeder discs the wrong food for these guys?

And is it a freckled crayfish or is it something else?

Thanks again,

Kam

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:45 am

ANy algae or plant based food for things like plecos is awesome for them & they usually go crazy for algae wafers.

Insane Invert · Post by **Insane Invert** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:00 pm

Awsome news, Just got home today and there were many little baby cray's all about, There must be close to a hundred of them in there. The mommy just molted and I left it in there, besides the bottom feeder discs I added some more potato and there are too many baby crays to count. Thanks for all you help everyone espicialy CANADIANCRAY who gave me the best info out of all the forums I posted on. Your def the Cray master.

I'll post some pics If my digi can pic up the little guys tommorow.

On a sad note the daddy died as my neighbor stopped feeding my p's three days into a seven day feeding schedule, along with a awsome blue johanni.