Help with c.shufelti breeding.

dufus · Post by **dufus** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:13 pm

i have 4 c.shufelti in a ten gallon tank with many lants and some small fish.

i want to breed these guys, and extend my knowledge on them. is there any special thing i should know about breeding?
the tank is about 80*, should i lower it? will they breed with fish in there?

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:30 pm

Welcome dufus.

There is a lot of great information in this forum on breeding these and other closely related crays. You can start here with a good description of this species: http://www.petshrimp.com/cajundwarfcrayfish.html

I'd suggest spending the evening reading any threads in here related to cambarellus because many of us are working on improving our breeding success and you will find a LOT of good information in there.

Your crays can handle the temp of your tank, but I would drop it down a few degrees if your fish can handle it.

However, your fish are almost certain to eat the baby crays even if they leave the adults alone and harrassment by the fish may cause the females to drop their eggs prematurely.

You'll probably have to decide what your priority is. Do you want a nice looking fish tank that has some crayfish in it or do you want to maximize your success at breeding these crays?

dufus · Post by **dufus** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:39 pm

i was thinking about making a 2.5 gallon cherry shrimp breeding tank, if i saw a berried female, i could move her there. i definatley need more plants in my tank though, i have some foreground plants that would hide any baby shrimp/cray, but it hasn't grown in yet.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:27 pm

I've had no luck breeding them in a 10 gallon tank, but in my 40 gallon breeder they go to town. 78 degrees F, hard water. Lots of dried oak leaf litter and tons of hornwort. Lose the fish. They pick at the eggs & stress the crayfish.

I have little terra cotta dishes that I've notched for caves. The females brood in them. I feed sinking shrimp pellets and sinking goldfish food. They have pretty much finished off all the string algae.

dufus · Post by **dufus** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:31 pm

thanks for the opinion. i have a 29 gallon tank i would like to set up, but i want to try to breed some sort of micro rasbora in it too. would they be ok, being thhat the crays are bigger than micro rasbo's?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:45 pm

I don't think so. Size alone isn't the issue. Eggs are very attractive food for fish. They will dart in and take eggs if they can. No fish or you get no babies. Even plecos end up sucking in babies by accident.

You need to choose.

dufus · Post by **dufus** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:51 pm

hmm, tha kinda sucks, well, maybe i'll just set the 29 up as a planted cray/rasbora tank and see what happens. i really want to breed these, but not to the point of a species only tank. i just want to find berried females once in a while, i could seperate berried's from the rest of the tribe.
the rasboras are mostly top and mid dwellers, and with enough micro swords or pearlgrass, they may never find the babies. oh well, i geuss i'll never have a cray farm, but maybe someday i could focus more on them.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:19 am

My experience with pulling out berried females and putting them in a 10 gallon had the same results. No hatchlings, or very high mortality on the hatchlings.

We keep getting people here that insist on keeping fish with their crays and shrimp. After a bit they either give up and go to an invert tank, or we stop hearing from them.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:18 am

We keep getting people here that insist on keeping fish with their crays and shrimp. After a bit they either give up and go to an invert tank, or we stop hearing from them.

This is so true, we all get the message in the end

dufus · Post by **dufus** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:55 pm

for one, keeping shrimp and crays with fish is possible. Apperently breeding them with fish in there isn't easy, if not impossible.

Keeping inverts only doesn't interest me much, so i think i'll keep mine with fish until i get really into breeding them.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 1:32 pm

badflash wrote:I've had no luck breeding them in a 10 gallon tank.

I take it back! I now have a berried female in a 10 gallon tank. Now lets see if I get any babies. The eggs are fresh as she is still tail tucking.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:44 pm

I've now got a confirmed hatch in my 10 gallon tank. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they will survive. This particular tank isone with just java fern & java moss. The cherry shrimp are doing great here too. This is a "no oak leaf" tank I'm trying to compare production in an "oak leaf tank".

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:58 pm

This is a "no oak leaf" tank I'm trying to compare production in an "oak leaf tank".

Looking forward to the results. It may take a while though.

Vera · Post by **Vera** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:57 pm

Congrats on your hatch!

I think the results of your experiment will be interesting as well. My hypothesis is that both the oak leaves or the plants will work equally well.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:19 am

Yes, Jason had said that it didn't matter, but I think have more good hiding places must be better for little ones.