My Crayfish Molted Yesterday

[Prairie Mom]

I'm super busy, I'll try to read the rest of the thread in a little while. I have the feeling there are some entertaining reads

 

[bouaboua]

Hi Steven There are several kinds of crayfish. I'm not an expert, so please second guess me... My understanding is that there are North American crayfish and Australian Yabbies. Australian Yabbies are the huge kind of crayfish that restaurants will sometimes serve instead of lobster. -These guys can live ages and get over a foot long.

I have a fancy bred variety of a North American Crayfish. Pet stores now sell all kinds of interesting colored breeds of these guys. Have a look at this page: http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/misc_critters/crayfish.htm Mine is the Coral Pink variety and he was purchased at the WALMART FISH DEPARTMENT I have not found clear answers on their lifespan. A few places said 1 or 2 years, but I think they assume people will not take care of them. My guy is approaching three with no sign of illness or slowing down. I expect him to live a lot longer. They live in unheated freshwater tanks and I recommend housing them alone. They are "dirty" just like goldfish, so you'll need regular water changes. I highly recommend them. They're a lot of fun and really tolerant.

I'm grateful and thank you for the info and the link.

Yes they are or one that you have are so big to be call crayfish. Lobster, I will call them. David (dmmj) had one that lived for 10 years.

Thank you again for the reply.

 

[Prairie Mom]

How big they will get?

woops! I realize I didn't answer your post correctly...

My understanding is that Australian yabbies can get over sixteen inches. My little petstore crayfish is similar to the "electric blue" that are all the rage in shops these days. My variety is only expected to get to be 8 inches, but time will have to prove whether this is right.

 

[bouaboua]

woops! I realize I didn't answer your post correctly...

My understanding is that Australian yabbies can get over sixteen inches. My little petstore crayfish is similar to the "electric blue" that are all the rage in shops these days. My variety is only expected to get to be 8 inches, but time will have to prove whether this is right.

8 inches.......

That will be a lobster in my book. And I'm not sure I will consider that as a "pet" or "dinner" when I have nothing look as nice as he in the tank then in the fridge .

 

[Prairie Mom]

They are opportunistic feeders. They will grab live guppies, but they will also eat food dropped into the tank like shrimp and beef heart. I've got some in my fish ponds that hang out by the filters. I feed them shrimp pellets.
What do you feed your guy, Prairie Mom? I've also never seen the red patches on the side of the claw. (I'm only familiar with our South Eastern variety) That's a nice looking "Crawdad".
Do yours ever climb out of the tank? That was always an issue when I kept them in fish tanks.

Hi Zero I'm not an expert, but my understanding has been that they are mainly herbivores, but feed opportunistically on fish etc. I feed mine mainly vegetables. He seems to really enjoy defrosted peas and defrosted frozen broccoli. I also drop in algae wafers, sinking pellet food that I also give my goldfish, and occasional shrimp pellets for a treat. My variety is called a "coral pink." When I purchased him, he was in a tank housed with electric blue "lobsters." They were amazing. He looked kind of dull and grey in comparison, but he had the most spunk -I think I made the right choice As he molts, he gets more and more pink and blue spots. It's pretty fun to see.

YES, mine has crawled out of the tank. Just once and then I put a weight on the lid until I could change my setup. My little girl found him on the floor. It's shocking that the fall off the stand didn't kill him!

 

[Prairie Mom]

Thanks for sharing! Molting is cool!! I loved when my tarantulas would molt, they were so vibrant and beautiful! What a good pet to have!! My mother in law brought home a huge crayfish from Lake Huron (Boy did my husband get on her about that) and she put him in our tank with the pirahna (I was upset) but anyways.....that crayfish was GONE!!! But there were no aftermath pieces of the crayfish being eaten, he was big! Seriously....about a year later, my mother in law found that crayfish in our pantry dead!!!!!! There was never a smell or anything. He was behind boxes and old pots and pans on the floor. He probably escaped from the opening on top of the tank and climbed town the wires of the tank as soon as he went in the tank. Her intention was to never kill the crayfish, but merely have him. Well my husband and I had to have the talk with her about leaving animals in there environment & to never do that again!! Poor fella!

Wow! What a story!

 

[dmmj]

Do not mix with water turtles, in case anyone was curious.

 

[Prairie Mom]

I'll post a few photos of my tank since we're talking about keeping them in tanks and escape artist pets

It's nothing fancy, but my tank setup could still use some improvements...
Here's what I plan to fix:
-NEW HIDES. He has outgrown his old favorite haunts. My crawfish is obviously territorial and really likes his castle that my kids insisted on getting He tipped it over himself and uses it as a cave. After he has eaten up his old exoskeleton, I'll do a water change and clean up the gravel. Once I've done that, I plan to buy some ceramic pots and place them in there for him to use as caves. I'll lean his beloved castle on one of the pots.

-EVEN MORE GRAVEL. He has quite a bit of gravel in there already, but he seems to enjoy digging, building hills, and creating his own tunnels. IT'S GREAT FUN TO SEE HIM DECORATE I've also read that some crawfish will bury themselves as a protective measure while their new exoskeleton is hardening up. I used to have a few larger aquarium rocks in there with him and think I will return those to the tank as well. He would get good exercise and move those around the tank.


If you can keep healthy goldfish and are willing to keep up on water changes, you can easily have one of these guys. They use the same conditions and are "dirty" in the exact same way.

I have a tall tank that is only half full (I may reduce the water a tiny bit more). Crawfish need air. I provide both an air stone and the ability for him to poke his head out every once in a while.

I don't put in plants. I imagine he would eat up live plants very quickly, but I'm open to other views on this. I had fake plants in with him when we first got him, but then he started EATING THE PLASTIC, so I removed them.

 

[Prairie Mom]

You can see his old shell floating in there. It's only floating because I took it out. Normally it would just lay on the bottom exactly where he left it. My crawfish "Eddie" will be in hiding until his new exoskeleton hardens. I'm not feeding him now, so he'll be good and hungry and eat his shell. My little guy is doing really well and always eats every bit of it.

-We put in a floating turtle dock on the side of the tank. He's only used it twice and OF COURSE the kids were ASLEEP both times. He's the most active at night. So, I'm not really sure if the dock idea is considered a success. It's sure fun to try new things though.

 

[Prairie Mom]

I use a hanging filter, because it pulls in from the bottom better AND THERE ARE LESS TUBES FOR HIM TO TRY TO CRAWL UP AND ESCAPE!!! We used a sturdy wire to hang the filter even lower in the half filled tank. You can see my small air stone too. (He made the hills and "tunnel" under the false cave himself )

 

[Prairie Mom]

AND MY REALLY COMPLEX WAY OF KEEPING HIM FROM ESCAPING...

A ROCK

He has not escaped since I've arranged the set up I posted on this thread. I'll let you know if he ever does
I've reduced the amount of stuff he can use to climb out of the tank, I use a hanging filter now, lower water level, and added weight on the lid just in case. So far so good.

 

[Moozillion]

This is really cool! I would never have imagined crawfish make such good pets!

 

[Levi the Leopard]

This has been fun to read...thanks for sharing!

 

[Prairie Mom]

This is really cool! I would never have imagined crawfish make such good pets!

They really are a lot fun. My little guy is surprisingly interactive and unafraid of us. My kids love it.

 

[Prairie Mom]

I thought I'd finish up this molting post with a photo of our Crawfish eating his molted exoskeleton. I bet you're starving for dinner now!!! In the photo, he's gnawing on his tail and you may be able to make out some bits of claw behind him. It's pretty weird seeing him chew on his old FACE! Man!, these are weird and fun creatures!




Our crawfish is doing great after his recent molt. His new shell hardened up quickly. He's grown in size and has some nice new color detailing. I'm pleased to see him behaving lively, energetic, and climbing a lot. In this photo, he came to check me out since I'm snapping photos of him.





Then he decided he'd rather eat in private Can't have the human's stealing his meal after all! He took his shell and continued to finish it off in his cave. He took about a week to finish consuming his old exoskeleton. Now, he is back on his regular diet and enjoying some veggies.

 

[Prairie Mom]

Our beloved Crayfish/Crawfish/Crawdad (-did I forget one?? ) had another molt. His molts have become extremely predictable. He lets us know days in advance. He stops eating for several days, begins rearranging his tank, and knocking things over. He also moves his gravel around making both hills and holes when he is getting ready for a molt. We're also noticing that he likes to molt on the same side of his tank every time.

He's such a fun interesting little beastie.





He's growing really well. His antenna are now so long that we'll have to look into another tank upgrade soon.



My goal is to catch him in the act and film him escape his old exoskeleton, but I always seem to miss the magic moment! Aarrgh!


Here's a cool video of a similar crayfish molting