Dwarf orange crayfish

fredyk · Post by **fredyk** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:01 am

before the group order went through, I had bought the 3pak special of the dwarf orange crayfish, the 3rd was a blend of orange/brown.

They went into my cherry shrimp tank, so conditions were optimal, I thought.

I didn't notice after about 2 months, that only one was left. About two weeks ago, the last sighting of the last orange crayfish, and now there's none.

An expensive lesson. I thought I'd share.

Post by **krisw** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:05 am

I'm sorry to hear Mark! I picked up two pairs of the normal brown cajun dwarf crayfish from the catfish convention, and have about 10 babies in the tank right now. If I'm able to raise them up, you're welcome to a pair of those. Not as much of a novelty as the orange ones, but so far they're pretty hardy.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:07 am

What were you feeding them Mark? I wonder if they didn't get enough nutrients because of the soft water at your place. Sorry to hear about your loss.

Post by **krisw** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:16 am

Aaron, what would you recommend feeding crays? Particularly the babies.

fredyk · Post by **fredyk** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:36 am

Wow, Kris! Wow.

I have dwarf cajun crays with my puffers, so no babies obviously. I had them separate from orange crays to prevent cross-breeding. Mike said to separate them, because the oranges will kill the cajuns.
Maybe the cajuns can go into shrimp tank, if I could find them and catch them.
The crays were getting shrimp pellets, and they loved frozen tubifex...

the guy selling crays at the catfish convention said he had gotten a few pairs of orange crays. he said they didn't last for more than a few months, so there you go..

Ltrepeter2000 · Post by **Ltrepeter2000** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:09 am

Sounds like the Orange Crays are having a hard time molting. Thats usually when you lose inverts like that. Aaron may be right on the nutrients since they draw a lot from the water to molt properly. I dont know the specific requirements for them but something to look at.

Rob

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:40 am

Yeah, I think you might better off buffering your water some to keep them for long periods of time. The shrimp pellets are decent, but don't usually have enough calcium. I usually like to buy the 'snail cookies' on aquabid that are homemade. I find the shrimp do best on this food.

fredyk · Post by **fredyk** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:31 pm

I wonder if two inch juvenile ancistrus are munching on molting crayfish.

Ltrepeter2000 · Post by **Ltrepeter2000** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:52 pm

They are probably picking at them at the very least and if its during molting that could be enough to kill them.

SCMurphy · Post by **SCMurphy** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:14 pm

Kinda hard to pass up a free lobster dinner, you know?

Dwarf orange crayfish

Dwarf orange crayfish

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