Introducing: Cambarellus diminutus

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:07 pm

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.

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:22 pm

I know some guys in Germany would be drooling over those.

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:30 pm

YuccaPatrol

It is good to hear that your trip was a success.

Thank You for the Photo's.

I look forward to the Updates.

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

John

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:08 pm

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. . .

milalic · Post by **milalic** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:15 pm

very, very nice.

zwergkrebszuechter · Post by **zwergkrebszuechter** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:14 am

CanadianCray wrote:I know some guys in Germany would be drooling over those.

Yes they are.

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.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:33 am

Thank you for sharing the beautiful specimens! Are these adult crays? Best wishes on your future field collection trips

.

CanadianCray · Post by **CanadianCray** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:45 pm

zwergkrebszuechter wrote:
CanadianCray wrote:I know some guys in Germany would be drooling over those.
Yes they are.

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.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:05 pm

This is great, Yucca!! I hope they breed just as readily as their C. shufeldtii cousins. Keep us updated!

Gregor Samsa Mendel · Post by **Gregor Samsa Mendel** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:39 pm

YuccaPatrol--They're adorable! Is that little 2 cm thing in the top picture an adult?

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:07 pm

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.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:15 pm

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.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:48 pm

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)

Post by **Mustafa** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 8:28 pm

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.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:00 am

Keep us posted on the behavior of these crays too. Are they diggers? Do they eat plants? Are they agressive?

Great work!