Breeding crayfish

[EmilyB]

Have any of you done this? I did once briefly, the female crawled out of the tub and ended up dead in the laundry room, but we did have one full successful hatch. At that time, someone else was looking after it, so I don't recall the details.

There is overwhelming info on the web, but I hoped someone could shortcut this for me, as Petland has some cheap crayfish right now ( I just need some guidance to male/female)

This is to replace my zebra dwarf lion's grocery bill for ghost shrimp. I am told the crayfish can spawn 600 or so??

[ 27 August 2002, 19:19: Message edited by: EmilyB ]

[EmilyB]

Just an interesting followup. I went back to the LFS and the crayfish were gone. There is another fellow in there I've know for years, and although he is mostly in dogs, I asked him about the crayfish. He said all the crayfish were stolen, including a new batch of babies, and it looked like an inside job.......... :confused: :rolleyes:

[Delphinus]

Bizarre! What a strange world we live in.

Just a thought, are you sure there is a definite male and female in crayfish? Maybe they're spontaneous hermaphrodites like shrimp ... ?

[EmilyB]

Actually, yes..they are little lobsters...so the V thing or whatever. I just need to see a bunch of them and pick out several pairs of different V's I guess... :rolleyes:

[Delphinus]

Do lobsters have the V thing??? I thought the V thing on crabs is their tail pulled under their body. Lobsters and shrimp and crayfish ... the tail is a tail.

Ok, I admit, now I really know nothing. Crud.

[EmilyB]

Well, I don't know for sure it's a V thing, but when I bought live lobsters, I wanted to make good and sure not to get a female, and they definitely looked under the tail....... :D

[Delphinus]

Well you've got me intruiged now... I now know what my next work-avoidance/web-searching topic will be about ... :D If I find anything I'll pass the info, if you (or anyone) else finds the answer please post in here ... inquiring minds want to know! [img]smile.gif[/img]

PS. Are you sure they weren't just pulling a trick? "Oh yes, I checked, it's not a female." [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 16 September 2002, 13:12: Message edited by: delphinus ]

[Delphinus]

Here's what I found about lobsters. Couldn't find a lot of info about specifically crayfish, although I did find one site that made mention of an assumption that crayfish and lobsters were very similar and it's possible that this would be the same.

From http://web.mit.edu/seagrant/adoptabo...ranscript.html

If you look underneath the tail, there's two swimmerets in the front of the lobster's tail right here, these two swimmerets are soft and feathery looking on a female right here. Also a female has a wider tail, if you look at the tail piece right here, it's wider than a male of the same size. And the claws are generally a little smaller.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">From http://www.caperoyal.com/faq.htm

The most noticeable difference is the first pair of swimerettes on the underside of the tail. On males, these are relatively large, hard and smooth while on the females they are soft and small. Mature lobsters have larger claws while females have wider tails.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">HTH ... back to work I go ... (sigh) Anything to avoid RealWork(tm)! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[EmilyB]

Thanks Tony :D If you happen to notice any crayfish kicking around on your travels, let me know.

[EmilyB]

Well, I spent some time looking at crayfish bottoms today.... You know that old guy at Riverfront, I even had him laughing...

So I have a pair......maybe.....