What do your crayfish do?

[chlorophyll]

I think my current juvenile P. Clarkii has the most interesting behaviors of any crusacean I've ever kept! I remember playing with these as a child, but never really observed them in a tank.
It's very distracting in my desktop setup.

I watch him:
-Climbing up the side of the tank and pulling his body as far out of the water as he can, then plopping back down.
-Climbing on the branch I put in the tank, to the surface, and filling his shell with air.
-Sometimes briefly perching himself on the branch, completely out of the water.
-Digging a burrow between two rocks -- They don't just push the gravel; he collects a scoop of the substrate in his front arms, walks out of the burrow with it and places the substrate elsewhere. Very cute.
-Trying to spar with my tools when I'm aquascaping.
-Just today after a moult, I saw him using his middle legs to pick up small pieces of substrate and whack them on the back of his eyes. I don't know if this is some sort of normal post-moult ritual, or if there's something not quite right with my little guy... but he just keeps doing things that grab my attention.

[edinjapan]

....drive me nuts

[Jackie]

I think my current juvenile P. Clarkii has the most interesting behaviors of any crusacean I've ever kept!

So as my Cherax destructor

I watch him:
-Climbing up the side of the tank and pulling his body as far out of the water as he can, then plopping back down.

Mine is too lazy

-Climbing on the branch I put in the tank, to the surface, and filling his shell with air.

Mine is too lazy

-Sometimes briefly perching himself on the branch, completely out of the water.

Mine is too lazy

-Digging a burrow between two rocks -- They don't just push the gravel; he collects a scoop of the substrate in his front arms, walks out of the burrow with it and places the substrate elsewhere. Very cute.

Mine is lazy but does the same

-Trying to spar with my tools when I'm aquascaping.

Mine too

Just a few days ago Osbourne (name of my cray) decided to take off the sponge from the PowerHead and cut it to small pieces.

ALL of the plants I had in the tank stopped existing - Mr. Destructor destructed them.

O, I almost forgot - he can read and write in Japanese

[edinjapan]

Just a few days ago Osbourne (name of my cray) decided to take off the sponge from the PowerHead and cut it to small pieces.

ALL of the plants I had in the tank stopped existing - Mr. Destructor destructed them.

O, I almost forgot - he can read and write in Japanese

Osbourne as in Ozzy? I'd introduce him up to Zari chan-she has one trick that she does well, climbs up on the hand that has the food and takes the goodies. Right now now she and B chan have some 100-200 offspring in a styro fishbox, I traded 10 last week at tyhe LFS for 2kg of fishfood, 4 anubias barterii and 2 coffiola.

BTW reading and writing Japanese is easy, can he use Illustrator, Photoshop and Maya?

[Jackie]

Osbourne as in Ozzy?

I had two of them, one was Ozzy, the other Osbourne. Ozzy died a few weeks ago
I'm trying to get a female for my cray, but it's very difficult.

I'd introduce him up to Zari chan-she has one trick that she does well, climbs up on the hand that has the food and takes the goodies. Right now now she and B chan have some 100-200 offspring in a styro fishbox, I traded 10 last week at tyhe LFS for 2kg of fishfood, 4 anubias barterii and 2 coffiola.

Lucky you! I still haven't had the pleasure of being a crayfish grandmama.

BTW reading and writing Japanese is easy

Sure
Last year I had the opportunity to talk to Takashi Amano - ask him about what he thinks of the Polish language and you will know what I think of Japanese I had problems remembering how to say "Hello" in Japanese, LOL

can he use Illustrator, Photoshop and Maya?

No, but I can (except Maya)

[edinjapan]

Yesterday night I was woken up by a crayfish crawling up to visit me as I slept. It was Zari chan. Don't know how she got out but, there she was trying to crawl on top of me-probably just wanted to complain about being forced to eat shrimp pellets...

[amber2461]

This is so interesting, makes me wanna start up a tank. Could you please give me your tank parameters so that I can start one up in the hopes of putting a pair in here then?

cheers

[Mustafa]

Hi Marge,

Crayfish are actually less sensitive (in general) than shrimp. So, whatever works for shrimp works for most crayfish. However, most crayfish (except for some dwarf species such as Cambarellus sp. ) also like eating plants, so usually plants as decoration are not an option.

I believe you can generally say that crayfish do well with at least some moderate hardness in the water, although some species do come from extremely soft waters (e.g. in the southern US and Florida).

Hope this helps somewhat.

Mustafa

[JaVaGiRl]

Yeah, crayfish do better in harder water (my experience). I always put java moss and wisteria in my big daddy tank, but he always munches on it. As for behaviors : I think crayfish have very different behaviors thats why I like them so much. When one of my crayfish are about to drop there babies, i'm like an impatient mommy, can't wait to see there personalities I'm just glad not alot of people sell crayfish