Frustration

lampeye · Post by **lampeye** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:49 am

Anyone have any ideas on what would make me lose four cajun dwarfs in two days and have a female lay eggs on the third?

Last time I had these guys, I got bored with them, they were so easy. This time, I feel like the most rank of amateurs....

At least I have the egged-up fem. Alright, I'm done venting.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:00 am

Hey, sorry to hear about your losses

Don't mean to pry but how long did you have them before the loss?

lampeye · Post by **lampeye** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:12 pm

Thanks...no need to be sorry, though.

They were from two different sources. One, captive raised for many generations by local hobbist, I've had for two months or so. The other source is wild caught crays I've had a month or so. I lost crays from both batches. The funny thing is that while I lost a range of sizes, none of the very large (read old) wild ones died.

I've been in the hobby for decades and sometimes I just get a little cranky that things like this still happen.

ToddnBecka · Post by **ToddnBecka** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:11 pm

Yes, it is frustrating when they die for no apparent reason. At least you have a producing female though, I'm still waiting for fertile eggs.
I received 2 pairs of orange dwarfs from Germany a few weeks ago, now have a single female remaining. I only found one corpse, a male. I presume the other two, which were the smaller pair, (though both pairs were juvies) were eaten by the other crayfish, cherry shrimp, and snails in the tank.
I had previously housed a trio of orange/brown mix in the tank with no problems. They have since been moved into a 30 with 2 orange males. The smallest orange/brown female was carrying a few eggs, but they were orange/infertile.
I'm thinking of adding some Cajuns to the 10 after the remaining orange is moved out, to help control the snail population.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:37 pm

I haven't yet kept the cajuns, but I can say that C. diminutus has some pretty aggressive mating behaviors even though they are generally very peaceful even at a relatively high density.

At least half of my egg carrying females have missing claws and often are also missing or have damaged legs. The males are just too aggressive sometimes during mating.

There may also be male-male competition for females ready to mate.

Considering that the deaths occurred at the same time as a mating event, it is possible that the deaths are due to fighting and aggressive behaviors during mating.

Post by **Mustafa** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:41 pm

The cajuns are the same...it's not rare to see females with a missing claw or limbs. Some even miss both claws. However, I have never seen a healthy female die from such "tender lovemaking."

Post by **Mustafa** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:15 pm

lampeye wrote: I've been in the hobby for decades and sometimes I just get a little cranky that things like this still happen.

I know what you mean. However, crays and shrimp are literally a "different animal." They are a lot more sensitive to adverse factors in their environment. Even in tanks where fish are doing fine, inverts can die left and right. Even minute changes can cause die-offs, such as an unmeasurable ammonia and/or nitrite spike. I've learned these things the hard way over the last few years...and it was the *really* hard way as I was all by myself and no forum/website like this to go to for advice.