gnatster wrote:Would you mind describing the setup you use to house and breed these?
Tank size, other floura and fauna, what size tanks are needed for growout.
Thanks
Hi gnatster,
I have two pair in a 10 gallon tank with a spongefilter, a few small turbo seashells for them to hide in, some java moss and najas grass...there are a couple common ramshorn snails in there and nothing else though they would probably do fine with dwarf shrimp. I don't use a heater so the temperature is probably in the low seventies. I have a batch of young growing out right in the same tank -- they are about the size of crystal red shrimp right now.
I feed frozen brineshrimp twice per day, and a pellet food once every other day(they don't seem to like it as much as the brineshrimp). The young crayfish spend a lot of time on the sponge filter eating the infusoria. Now that they have some size, they are not harassed by the adults -- though I was worried for a while. I don't appear to have lost any.
Last year, I had one pair breeding in a 2.5 gallon tank which seemed to work fine(it was well established). In a small tank, hiding places are essential IMO. I would say two trios or three pairs would do well in a 10 gallon species tank, at least twice that many in a 20 gallon and so on. If you want a separate growout tank, you could just move the female to that tank until she releases the young. I would just make sure to have live plants and an established spongefilter for them.
This is what works for me, though there are other methods that will work fine as well I'm sure.
Amanda
