electric blue crayfish carrying eggs

drfong

My electric blue crayfish is carrying a tail load of eggs. Should be interesting to see if they make it. There has to be atleast 100 eggs there now. I'm sure most get eaten by mom or each other as they grow.

bluedawg

Pics or it isnt happenning. Howed you wind up with a M/F pair of EBCs?

drfong

Not sure what you mean by the first part of your post. I bought them from a local fish store. I had never seen them before and they looked cool. There was one male and one female and the girl who owns the store said they had been mating. I bought them and sure enough one was male and one was female. The male died about a week ago, I don't know if it was mating related or if he just died. About 3 days ago she started hiding more and I thought maybe she was getting ready to molt, then I noticed all the eggs. Since then she has been staying hidden most of the time. I guess it maybe some instinctual thing. I do have 1 fish in there, but I am going to remove it soon. Everywhere I see on the internet says it will take atleast 4 weeks for the eggs to hatch. I need to figure what to do with the gurami fish soon, I just don't know how well it will do in my community tank. I have 90 gal tank that could handle him, but don't want him to kill my other fish. I really have no idea how aggressive it is. 2 of them came with the 29 gal tank I picked up off craigslist. 1 died, he was being eatin by the female cray, but I really don't think the crayfish killed it. It is an awfully big fish for the cray to get. I did stress them out moving the tank then taking them out and putting them back in when I got the crayfish. 2 days later it was cray food.

If some of these crays make it, you want a pair? I'll try and take some pics tomorrow. She has been hiding and has been keeping her tail curled up to protect the eggs, so it maybe hard to get a good shot.

Criosphynx

Thats awesome. I had one of my saltwater peppermint shrimps do this too, except i bought her that way. Once they hatch the fish in the tank will slurp them up. Perhaps you have another tank just for her for now?

Katzyn

Lol, "pics or it ain't happening" is just a stupid thing kids are saying now when they want pics. >_<

Congratz on having eggs. I hope they make it. =)

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drfong

I've never heard that before, well I'm old and out of touch. There is only 1 fish in the tank and I'm going to move it when I clean my tanks this week. I also have a lot of live plants in my 90 gal tank and I'm going to move some of it to the crayfish tank so they have lots of hiding places and food when they hatch. I think the biggest issue will be cannabalism by each other and mom. I may need to take her out of the tank after they hatch.

drfong

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks and lady blue seems to be doing fine. I have removed the fish from the tank so she has it to herself. She is still carrying her eggs under her tail. I expect them to hatch in about 2 more weeks. I have added some live plant for them to hide/feed on. Hope all goes well.

digits mama

Down here we catch crawfish with beef melt...it seems to be the fave amongst crawfish here in the south......

drfong

I think they are starting to hatch. Saw a little movement going on and look about 2-3 millimeters.

drfong

Well today there are lots of small crays about 1/4 inch throughout the tank. I managed to catch mom when she came out of hiding and got some pics. Here is a good one of her sitting on a plant. There are still a few babies on her tail, but you can not see them in the picture. They are up underneath. Most I think have already left mom. I will give a few more days and then remove her from the tank. The last pic is just a shot of their habitat.

drfong

I have mom out of the tank now and can't tell how many babies are in there. I could end up with quite a few, anyone need some crayfish?

Kuma'sMom

Your female is gorgeus! Congratulations on the spawn! I'd love to try one of those one day, but unfortunately, they'd become a rather expensive snack the first time they molted,sigh. One day, when I can add another tank.

AniBudgie

Congrats, and trust me, even though their Crayfish and in a tank, they can bring joy to your life.

By the way, how much are you selling them for?

drfong

As far as molting, if you give them places to hide, they will probably be fine in a tank with fish that are not aggressive.

As far as selling them, I guess it depends on how many I end up with. If only a small number make it, I think I can probably sell them to fish stores and locally on craigslist for around 5-10 dollars. They usually sell for about 20 bucks in the stores. If I need to try to start shiping them because I have lots to get rid of, probably 10-20 bucks for 4-5 crays plus shipping. If I send someone 5 crays, they should be sure to receive a live male/female pair.

Kuma'sMom

lol, I keep Cichlids, believe me, hiding places or not, a crayfish would be a snack the minute it molted! People have tried it, it never ends well. That's okay. One day I'll have the space to devote tanks to fish other than Cichlids, but for now, my tank space is reserved for my Cichlids.

AnimalLuvr

congrats, on the eggs.

drfong

With your fish, yes it would not work. Crays with fish is a balancing act. Yo need fish that are large enough and agresive enough to not end up cray food and docile enough to not kill the cray.

AnimalLuvr

Someone told me you were giving them cheaper. That's too bad. :P

drfong

If someone local wants some, I'm sure I'll sell them very cheep or even give them one. But If I have to go to the trouble to get appropriate shipping containers and ship them I would like to make a few bucks. Like I said they sell for 20-25 bucks in fish stores, so 5 bucks is pretty cheap as far as I'm concerned.

Kuma'sMom

$5 is incredibly cheap for these guys!

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