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It's been a little over 3 weeks since I saw the C. patzcuarensis female carrying eggs. How much longer before they hatch? The water temp is 76.

I'm working on pinpointing this right now with C. diminutus. My experience has been that it takes 3-4 weeks for my crays to hatch and almost a week to go through 2 larval stages before becoming independent.

Last night I observed mating and then isolated the female. If the mating was successful and eggs are produced, I'll be able to know exactly how long it takes for these eggs to develop.

I've made some changes to my isolation procedure to decrease the level of stress on the egg carrying female, so I hope that my efforts are successful.

Thanks for sharing the your findsings with us. I will be waiting to hear the results

Thanks for the reply. My berried female has plenty of cover in her corner of the tank, and is rarely visible. Occaisonally I'll see her coming out for food, but most of the time she stays well hidden.
One of the orange males recently molted, and is now missing a portion of a claw. Looks like something broke off about 3/4 of the last bottom section. I'm hoping it was damaged in mating with another female.

How are the diminutus doing? Are you overrun with little ones yet?

ToddnBecka wrote:
How are the diminutus doing? Are you overrun with little ones yet?

The diminutus are doing well and are beginning to breed again after taking about 6 weeks off. . . But I can't say that I am over-run with babies (yet).

I can also comment that the diminutus are brutal when mating. Most of my females are missing claws and often they lose both in the process. They grow back after a couple molts, so I don't worry about it too much but they sure do look weird.

Edit: I just came home to find that the newly isolated female I observed mating yesterday is now carrying eggs. If they are fertilized and continue through developement, then I'll have an answer to how long one particular species of Cambarellus takes to develop.

YuccaPatrol wrote:

ToddnBecka wrote:
How are the diminutus doing? Are you overrun with little ones yet?

The diminutus are doing well and are beginning to breed again after taking about 6 weeks off. . . But I can't say that I am over-run with babies (yet).

I can also comment that the diminutus are brutal when mating. Most of my females are missing claws and often they lose both in the process. They grow back after a couple molts, so I don't worry about it too much but they sure do look weird.

Edit: I just came home to find that the newly isolated female I observed mating yesterday is now carrying eggs. If they are fertilized and continue through developement, then I'll have an answer to how long one particular species of Cambarellus takes to develop.

Wouldn't you need a more controlled experiment to really determine how long it takes? Temperature might influence how much time it takes to develop, there could be other things involved as well.

-Pedro

milalic wrote:
Wouldn't you need a more controlled experiment to really determine how long it takes? Temperature might influence how much time it takes to develop, there could be other things involved as well.

-Pedro

Temperature is certainly one of the main variables that affect the development time. I am keeping track of it. . . .

My crays seemed to stop breeding for the past month or so. They began mating again just a couple days after I added a new batch of oak leaves to their tank. I also noticed that the timing of breeding coincides with the full moon right now. Whether either of these are breeding triggers or just anecdotal information is worth investigating.