Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I agree, it must be a natural instinct/need carried over from the wild.

The 10 gallon tank I had no luck with peviously is now going great guns. This is where I put my "culls" from the blue breeding project. Great crays, just an odd coloring. I'm pretty sure that for them to do well you need a well established tank with lots of growies in there for the babies. I also have loads of red rams with them. The cherries in the tank are doing great too, even though Ihave been over feeding for months for the benefit of the crays. The only thing I can think of is that the plants, snails and regular water changes make up for it.

Today a "puddin' belly" was out. She is about to release her babies:


She turned to go and I got this shot showing her underside:


It is times like that that I realy wish I had a faster low-light camera. The blurry brown stuff is about 25 baby crayfish hanging on for deal life!

Very nice.

I love that last pic! It must have felt fantastic to catch that.

I was lucky, but my camera wasn't fast enough to catch the detail. She fans them very quickly. You can see a few eyes though.

I totally understand since it took me YEARS to find a camera that will take pics of these little ones at all. (Price was a big factor in the time it took!)

Any conclusion/s on the oak leaf/no leaf theory?

It doesn't matter for these guys. The kkey is lots of hiding places for the babies (unsubstantiated observation). Leaves gives shelter as does pea gravel and loads of plants.

I over feed to prevent canabalism. I compensate with snails.

badflash wrote:It doesn't matter for these guys. The kkey is lots of hiding places for the babies (unsubstantiated observation). Leaves gives shelter as does pea gravel and loads of plants.

I over feed to prevent canabalism. I compensate with snails.

I totally agree based on my experience with these so far. I have been able to maintain them generationally in small(4.5 gal) glass tanks I built primarily for breeding tanks for small fish but I have ended up finding that if there are enough hiding spots, holes and crevices for all sizes from breeding adults down to newly released young that a range of sizes will live together and produce enough to harvest enough to start up other similar small breeding setups. This is no way to reach mass production levels but it is sustainable culture. Shards of broken clay pots and water logged bamboo sections plus heavy growth of Hornwort or Najas completes my set up design. Also a liberal spreading of the hollow sintered ceramic bio-filter "noodles" make excellent cover for the small and intermediate sizes of the dwarf Crayfish juveniles.

I like your idea with the bamboo. Not only does it provide shelter, but as it breaks down it will act like leaves and provide microfood and nitrate removal.

badflash wrote:I like your idea with the bamboo. Not only does it provide shelter, but as it breaks down it will act like leaves and provide microfood and nitrate removal.

Exactly so. It takes time but not much for the bamboo to soften as it decays. I also like the appearance of it in a planted aquariums as caves for secretive animals.