Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

[mrairportjunke]

ok.  maybe raul can help here but anyone please speeek up.  I have caught my blue crays gettin the groove on again.  first time my wife video it for me.  the second 2 times i have seen it. again tonight.  they were havin a late night romp.  well i dont know which is the female but im assuming the smaller of the 2.  but could be wrong.  well i read that they lay the eggs and she keeps them on her stomach. have seen on national geographic and stuff but not on mine.   i know it takes like 4 weeks or something.  but why is ithis the 3rd time for matinga nd i havent seen any babys?  i changed teh deco in the tank so i can see my crays better.  had to much in there so if she ever had eggs i couldnt see them.   Im down to 2 crays for the orginal 4. they thinned down the heard.  my biggest one killed all but the one he keeps humpin.  well mating lasted about 2 minutes.  hum.  glad to see that they arent much different than some people.  haah.  not me of course.  
but 2 questions, what to feed my crays so i know they get enough food with out over feedin and dirtyin the tank, and what do i do to get babys??   i need free puffer food.

[rrocket2002]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

Spot is the best one here to answer, but...

One, their groove usually last for hours at a time and not minutes.

Second, Once the female eggs are fertalized, the female will need a secluded area to hide where the male cannot bother her.  It should have a small opening on one side and a even smaller opening on another side that she can use as an escape route.  She will feel more secure that way and will hardly come out till the offspring will not need her protection anymore.  

Third, as for feeding...I just throw a pinch of flake in the tank.  Same for the offspring, I just crumple up the flake to smaller peices.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

well maybe i came up on them when they were finishing.
what you feeding your adults??
my wife told me today shes seen them tryin to get together couple times lately but everytime she walked up lefty got all defensive and came at her.

[rrocket2002]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

Flakes.  That is what I feed the adults.  You can feed them almost anything and they will eat it.

I do strongly suggest having a couple of hiding places for them for when they molt.  One will try to take advantage of the other while they are soft after molting.  I'm guessing that is what happen to the other two.

good luck on being a grandpa soon.

[dblondfemme]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

I haven't had eggs yet, but the two females in my tank both have their caves blocked up with gravel.  I can say this... mine do last hours (aren't some of you jealous?) and do it several times with maybe an hour or two of rest in between.  No more lost limbs (knock on wood).  The male now paces back and fourth.  He does come at the glass if even the dogs are near the tank.  I don't have their tank in a major intersection and I have about 5 hiding spots.  I now put shrimp pellets to lay around so no one decides they need to eat each other with all of that wonderful food around lol.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

yeah. i feed shrimp pellets cause i can drop them in front of them.  the flakes go all over the place.  i also got some of those large carnivor sinking pellets and they eat those.  i was just wondering what yall were feedin though to keep from make a mess in the tank.  i though i wasnt feedin enough is why they killed thme but i did have 4 in a 24g tank.  lol.  the 2 now have great hiding spots and im fixin to make a couple more for them with some coconut shells.

[JStrider]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

I use a pvc pipe to aim whatever sinking pellet I'm using for that feeding close to the cray, so the fish dont grab it before it hits the ground.

also for hiding places what I've done is gotten 4 or 5 inches of pvc pipe and put a 45 degree angle piece on each end and then bury it in the substrate.  my guy seems to love them.  make them with bigger pvc then you think you need.

you probably should have at least one hiding place per cray, more would be better.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

what kinda fishyou  have with yours?

[JStrider]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

Kim has some bleeding heart tetras that have done well

I've got a couple white cloud mountain minnows or whatever they're called
5 bloodfin tetras - school really well a lot of the time
a handful of silver danios and zebra danios

anything that is pretty quick and stays at the top should be alright... but I still wouldn't get attached to them...  any tank with one of the blue crays is a crayfish tank first and any other plants or animals should be considered potential food...

[dblondfemme]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

I put a single tiny blue cray in with a large batch of guppies.  I think he still believes he is itty bitty.  When one of the larger guppies swims by, the cray hides.  The newborn guppies can swim right in front of him and he does NOTHING.  Yes, I sexed him.  Now he is about 4 inches from heat to tail, not including claws.  My students measure him about once a week.  I think maybe since he was small when he was put in with the small fish, he tends to wait for the food  I give them each morning.  He has a cave (more of a lean-to) where he "hides" and awaits the falling food of his gods.  I had success keeping crays with golden wonder killies lol.  RIght now, my two females and male, are by themselves in a 20 long... no eggs yet, but I don't think it will be long.

[JStrider]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

Kim put 4 or 5 guppies in with her crays and they were all eaten within a week...

so it depends on the individual crays and the fish on whether it will work or not...

[dblondfemme]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

*happy dance* my one female has a ton of big black eggs hanging from her tail.  I removed the other female as well as the male thinking that it would stress her less if they moved rather than moving her.  I need to hurry up and put a songe over the intake.  I'll keep y'all posted.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

man wish i could get eggs from mine.  I need some puffer food. lol

[dblondfemme]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

8O

[RussGB]

Re: Crayfish doin the nasty and i need help

I guess just saying "blue crays" isn't enough. I had a Cherax Quadricarinatus (per my avatar) in a community tank full of fish at all levels. She never touched one, unless they were dead, and even then not often. She was much more into veggie pellets. I had her for years and she grew from tiny to better than 8" excluding claws.

The reason I say this is if you have a North American blue cray you are dealing with a very different animal than with an Antipodean cray....