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Question for all you cray keepers...

I have been reading that cray babies hatch and then cling to their mother's pleopods for another week. Do they eat during this time and leave their mom and come back or do they stay on the pleopods the whole time? Thanks!

Janis

Good question...I know of at least one crayfish species, where I have personally seen the young walk around at night (and maybe even eat food?) and come back to the mother's pleopods during the day. I could only observe that in a bare bottom tank with the crays under a stone, though. So, most of the time you won't ever see if the little guys are periodically leaving the mother or not. I'll try to find out more about this.

Mustafa wrote:Good question...I know of at least one crayfish species, where I have personally seen the young walk around at night (and maybe even eat food?) and come back to the mother's pleopods during the day. I could only observe that in a bare bottom tank with the crays under a stone, though. So, most of the time you won't ever see if the little guys are periodically leaving the mother or not. I'll try to find out more about this.

I've had a female carry her babies for a month. I usually separate them from the mother after two weeks and place them into their own quarters. this is to make it easier to feed them a special diet to control their colouration.

I've had a female carry her babies for a month. I usually separate them from the mother after two weeks and place them into their own quarters. this is to make it easier to feed them a special diet to control their colouration.

Just curious -- what kind of special diet do you feed them? How have you seen this affect their coloration? Are you breeding for blues or orange dwarfs or what?

Acsuth wrote:

I've had a female carry her babies for a month. I usually separate them from the mother after two weeks and place them into their own quarters. this is to make it easier to feed them a special diet to control their colouration.

Just curious -- what kind of special diet do you feed them? How have you seen this affect their coloration? Are you breeding for blues or orange dwarfs or what?

I'm going for the blues and whites and feed a diet with no caroteins in it. It's also important to not expose them to light or the melanopores will be stimulated and they begin to get colour.