What color am I?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:55 pm

Here is a pic of one of my adult Cajuns. What color do you think it is?
Brown, Green, Olive, Blue, Grey?

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:43 pm

I would have to say Grey, 2 tone

I know what some people feel about the color "Blue"

That is a very nice looking color.

John

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:43 pm

I'd say it's blue/bluish mostly with greyish in the front.

Nice cray either way and much bluer than most "blues" shown in the "blue C. schufeldtii" thread. Is this color permanent?

I'm surprised, by the way, that you have so many snails in your cray tank (especially young ones). My crays exterminate the snails after a while.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:02 pm

The ones Jason sent me are not nearly as agressive as the one I got from you Mustafa. They sure don't wipe out my snails, but then again I think I feed them too well.

The color changes day to day, but is always blue. They are sort of like the "mood ring" of crayfish. I'm keeping them on a veggie based diet and this seems to be the best for the color. Selective breeding seems to be improving them.

I put the best colors together and remove any with brownish/greenish overtones. I'm not doing single pairs at this point though.

This is one of my ligher blues, the "ice blue". This one decided to come out and be photogenic. I'm hoping one of the darker blues will come out for a photo shoot soon. The females get really dark when they carry and almost look black.

milalic · Post by **milalic** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:39 pm

I have to say brown with blueish tint. I have one that looks very similar to yours.

-Pedro

TKD · Post by **TKD** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:55 pm

I see blue/green stripes on a grey background.

TKD

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:54 am

I wonder how much of the color perception is in the eye of the beholder, or in the quality of the monitor. I'm looking at this from work and it looks nothing like the real thing, or how it looks on my screen at home.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:34 pm

I wonder how much of the color perception is in the eye of the beholder, or in the quality of the monitor.

I was thinking the same thing

I have a good monitor and it looks blue with some light grey but the moss adds a tint of green to it also.

michiganmale248 · Post by **michiganmale248** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:01 pm

It looks blue to me with some grey toward the front.

Nice crayfish

Paul L

Vera · Post by **Vera** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:49 pm

I have to admit that I am new to this forum but have raised blue crayfish for quite a while. That is a blue crayfish, but while I have been working with the shufeldti I have found that they are a true chameleon and change as they see fit, not as we want to classify them! That crayfish could be blue today, a very dark blue tomorrow and brown the next day. Until the color is stabilized there is no reason to classify this crayfish as any specific color. Furthermore, I think the most unique quality of the shufeldti is the simple fact that they have the ability to change color at will. This above everything else is what should be studied!

This crayfish is totally awesome! To my knowledge, and I know about a few, there is no other crayfish that has this quality. I think it's time we figure out why they go from one color to another. We need to start checking every factor, not only the water parameters, but the lighting, and the disturbances they have including the people walking through the room to see them. I will be looking for these factors and I hope the rest of you will as well.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:25 pm

We need to start checking every factor, not only the water parameters, but the lighting, and the disturbances they have including the people walking through the room to see them. I will be looking for these factors and I hope the rest of you will as well.

This sounds like a good project and goal to work on. badflash has already pointed out the influence food has on the color of his crays, let's see what other influences we can find. Thanks Vera

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:28 am

Getting berried up makes the females nearly black too.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:05 am

I have one group of C. diminutus that are kept in a tank with white sand substrate. They appear lighter in color than those kept in tanks with black sand. Instead of a typical brown/red, these crays are generally a light tan color.

It sure does seem that coloration of some Cambarellus species is quite variable. Food, environmental conditions, breeding state, etc may all play roles. . .

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:40 am

While the color is not constant, and seems to be quite variable, all cajuns do not do this to any appreciable degree. The normal cajun is brown and may go lighter or darker, but stays brown.

I have some of the brown ones and they never look blue. I know this is not a common trait as my browns, fed the same and kept in the same conditions, are just brown.

With each generation of selection this blue color trait is getting better. My current generation goes from blue to blue-grey to midnight blue, nearly black. Except in the very young, they are never "electric blue" but muted. None the less, everyone that sees these in person will tell you they are looking at a blue crayfish.

FISH WORLD ERIE · Post by **FISH WORLD ERIE** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:27 pm

I would say bluish with a hint of other colors. Great job badflash.
Mine still vary as much. I am now conducting an experiment as far as food goes. I have seperated 4 groups of 10 cajuns into 10 gallon tanks. 10 per tank. Each tank is getting a different food. With 4 different foods being used. Mine get a varied diet now. I have noticed no difference as far as lighting goes. I keep mine in the dark as well as the light. That makes no difference as far as blue goes. Temperature also does not appear to play a role. I keep some at 70 and some at 80. Plants also do not seem to play a role. Some of my tanks are planted and other ones just have green yarn. No difference in blue. Food may be the issue. But I do take my browner crays and throw them all in a seperate tank and these pretty much always stay the brown color. Even though they get the same food as the blue ones. And at one time I did keep regular cajuns and they did not turn blue like this. It started very slow and I originally selected from those to get my blue. I will post my results in a couple months on the food experiment. Good Luck to evryone that has them.
Jason