Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I am in my new apartment, got the 30 gallon invertebrate tank moved and setup Saturday, and I just caught 2 of my dwarf cajuns mating! i wasn't able to get a pic because i am stuck with my camera phone for now, and there was a glare coming from a window, so I sat back and watched. The male used his pinchers to hold down the female by her pinchers, and I could see his (excuse my lack for a better technical word--someone help me out here) "things" fertilizing the female while she was on her back with her tail flat. They were rudely interrupted by a nosy Atyopsis moluccensis. The male let go of the female. The female lay motionless for a few seconds, and then flipped back over. I have had these for almost a year now, and I have never observed actual mating, just females carrying eggs and craylets. SO COOL! Hopefully, they were together long enough for her to produce fertile eggs.

...And today, I found another male and female (could have been the same 2?) mating.

Go little crayfish, the more they get it on, the more of them you will have for sale

I have found that if I move there hiding spots every once in awhile there is a better chance of mating.
When they have a safe place to hide, the only time they will venture out is to feed.

If you ever get the chance to watch the entire mating process, you may want to pull up a comfortable chair. It can take awhile.

I have spent close to 15 minutes watching them mate and it seems the male takes forever to convince the female to flatten out her tail.

John

I had also seen another pair mating a few weeks after I saw the first pair. Apparently, one of the two females were fertilized because I had another batch of eggs hatch a few days ago. I am not sure how many were hatched because I haven't had a chance to get a head count. Still exciting and rewarding nonetheless.

That is great news . I have been away for a while due to business I had to take care of but I am back now. Do you still have your snowball and fan shrimp?

I sure do have my snowballs and bamboo shrimp. Although, I am down from around 100 snowballs to 15 with one female carrying eggs. Apparently, I wasn't feeding the crays enough, and they turned to picking off the legs of the snowballs and eating the juvies and some of the adults. he snowballs are now in their own tank--again. Oh, and I also now have bee shrimp, and 2 or 3 unidentified shrimp. I lost 3 of 4 CRS--which the 3 that I lost were females, and one was carrying eggs that were almost ready to hatch. The CRS losses were due to my moving across town in 113*F heat. So, I am now up to 6-8 different shrimp species.

Happy to hear you have kept up with the crays and shrimp. I too lost some of my shrimp to heat But I am glad it is getting cooler now Please keep us posted on the new baby crays and shrimp.