# Not a cichlid...not even a fish!



## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

My female Cherax sp. "Zebra" crayfish bred with her boyfriend (for the first time!) a couple days after our move last month. I've been trying to keep a close eye on her, but she obviously hides a lot so I usually can only get a good look every few days. Well, the Friday before last I managed to coax her out with food and saw that after over a month, her eggs had finally hatched. After checking my crayfish resources, I learned that once they're hatched, they will keep them for about another two weeks before they're released, so I promptly set up another 20gal long as my crayfish nursery tank. I've been keeping an even closer eye on my girl since then, as I didn't want to move her until I had to. Well, last night as I was on my way to bed and went in to shut the light off, I peeked in at her to see that she looked ready to burst with mini cray babies. I grabbed a net and immediately moved her to the nursery tank - they're so close to popping that three of them even came loose when I gently scooped her into the net. They are so freaking cute! Lol. So far she hasn't released the rest of the group, just the odd one here and there that has broken free...but seriously, they're adorable. They're about 3/8" right off of mom, and you can see their little pinchers and everything.

Anyway, to start with, here's their tank:









It's not meant to be pretty (though it actually was before I added the "ground cover" just now), it's just meant to be as complicated as possible with tons of hiding places, as baby crays are cannibals. It will also need to be upgraded in about a month I think...I'll be clearing out my 46gal which has the same footprint as a 55gal at that point.

And now to the cool but creepy part, lol. Mom is still carrying around the clutch, but they are barely clinging on. If you look at her from above, her tail is about double with width that it actually is, from them poking out. It's so cool but looks creepy at the same time...all these moving little things with black eyes and legs everywhere, lol. These pics actually turned out better than expected...I took them sideways with one hand as they were taken from the side of the tank, which only has about a 6" gap between it and the wall. I basically just guessed at a target and clicked, lol.


















Cord got in the way of this one...









Lol if you look reallllllly closely on the second picture, you can see one of those tiny little pinchers...


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## gunnerx (Apr 14, 2008)

Nice shots! They look very cool, you need to take some macro shots.


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

Very cool pics! Almost got me wanting to make a crayfish tank.


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Wow your right! very creepy but also sooooooo cool!
The look 'cute' in a way. :lol:


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Wow your right! very creepy but also sooooooo cool!
The look 'cute' in a way. :lol:


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

How long before we get the water boiling?

Nice shots.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

They're not big enough to even bother with, IF you enjoy that sort of torture 

Thanks


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Etouffee, anyone? :lol:

I can't see a crawfish without wanting to eat it!

Great pics, SK! I learned something today! I had no clue that they carried their little ones like that. I hope you'll update the thread on a regular basis with more pics!


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2008)

That is freaking awesome!!! Great job breeding these guys. Are these the ones that go for $30 a pop at the stores? You got some big bucks coming your way.


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## herny (Nov 30, 2007)

aswome shots sinster i am glad to here that the move is over and done with so what do you have now???


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

dntx5b9 said:


> That is freaking awesome!!! Great job breeding these guys. Are these the ones that go for $30 a pop at the stores? You got some big bucks coming your way.


Yes indeed they ARE! I paid $30 each for both mom and dad...so I'm planning on selling the babies at $5 when the reach about 2". Hella cheap but should bring in some bucks for me 

Lol thanks for the comments everyone. I'll update with some pics of the free-roaming babies once they're released and scooting around the tank.


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

that is awesome and they look cool!


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

Awesome pics, I never knew they could have so many babies.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Any crustacean (least that I'm aware of) has tons of babies. They have to...only a couple will end up surviving to adulthood and reproduce, so it's a strength in numbers thing.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

All right...peeked in on the fam just now, and she's hanging out in full view from the surface, and the kids are starting to come off in droves. They're all hanging out with her still, maybe encouraging their brothers and sisters who haven't taken the plunge yet? Lol. Pics are bad, since they're from the surface down, but you get the point.


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## herny (Nov 30, 2007)

awy ccccoooooollllll :drooling: :dancing:


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## NorthShore (Feb 3, 2006)

Very cool! Congrats! :thumb:


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2008)

Do the parents fight or eat the kids? What do you feed, the adults and the babies?

Still, very cool anthropod...


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

The parents are a perfect pair. They have been living together in a 20gal long (just the two of them) for about six months, and get along completely. They even share the same cave most of the time, despite having others to use. The parents won't be kept with the kids - once Mom has released them all, I'll remove her from the nursery tank and put her back in with her hubby. Crayfish as a rule are cannibals however, adults who are not paired will attack each other and yes, the babies will eat each other. The key is to provide a very complicated living space with tons of hiding places to optimize the survival rate. In about a month, the group will be moved to a 46gal (same foodprint as a 55gal), and hopefully that will do them for an additional six months or so.

As for food, they pretty much eat any of the sinking foods for bottom feeders, shrimp pellets, etc. The female actually really loves just plain old flake fish food...she'll often ignore the pellets when I feed them and wait for the flakes. The babies will eat crushed flakes as well, and the occasional sinking pellet.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2008)

Is that species dimorphic? Do you special order yours or anything? My LFS only has blue ones (and brown feeder ones too I guess for puffers or something) and one is usually bigger than the rest and drags the smaller ones into his cave... It's usually a cool sight (the bigger one doesn't appear to harm, just terrorize) especially when (rarely) the liitle ones fight back.

Oh, and do they need regular water changes or lower maintenance than fish in any other way? I was thinking of doing a lowtech tank soon.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Great...I showed my husband your pics last night...I thought he'd find them interesting.

He did. :lol:

Now, he wants to set up a tank and pick up some more of them. (We used to have some, but never bred them.)

Any tips on sexing them?


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## BlackShark11k (Feb 16, 2007)

Interesting. I had a friend who had his rusty crays breed. Pretty crazy seeing all those little crayfish babies swimming around :lol:

Good luck with yours!

Art


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

This species is monomorphic. The only slight difference is that my male has bigger claws than the female, but only recently. Here's the male:










To sex them, you have to basically vent them like you would a monomorphic cichlid. You flip them over and their reproductive glands are on their legs. The female has her set on the third set of walking legs (counting from the tail to the head) and the male has his on the first set. Like this:

Female:








Male:









Both of mine were purchased from two separate LFS, not special ordered at all. That being said...these two are the only Zebra crays that I've ever seen in town. The male we found first...one of the guys at one LFS who knows me showed me the new cray they got, the first Zebra I'd ever seen in town. I snagged him at once. A few months later I decided I would like to find a mate, so I had to learn how to sex them and found out I had a male. The day I "vented" my male, I had recalled seeing a similar-sized Zebra in a different LFS a couple days before, so on a whim I ran down. I made the store owner catch the cray and flip it over for me to try to sex, lol. I wasn't 100% confident, but thought it was a female, so I brought it home and posted the above picture on a crayfish forum for help. Sure enough, I had done well and had a female for my male. They have lived together ever since, and this is their first berry.

They require just as much maintenance as any of my cichlids tanks. Weekly water changes for sure. But with this species, a single cray only requires a 10gal to itself, and a pair just a 20gal.

Anyway, the info above doesn't apply to all crays. There are different ways to sex different species, some are the same as above and others are different. Kim...I'm glad I could suck you into something else 

And thanks for comments all


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

SinisterKisses said:


> Kim...I'm glad I could suck you into something else


 :lol:

Well, this time it was my husband...I've actually been trying to take some tanks down and regain some "people" space! 

I guess I'll learn NOT to show him anymore pics, no matter how interesting they are!

(No way does he get to see your big boys! :lol: )

Thanks for the information in your last post. I'll make him wear blinders when he looks at it!


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Lol see, I WISH I had your problem. If the boy was into the hobby like your hubby is, imagine how many tanks I could have!


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Here's some new pictures. A few of the gang are starting to feel brave and venture away from Mommy, this little group was hanging out on a rock when I turned the light on this morning. Pics aren't good, was in a rush to get them in case the light scared them and the ran back to mom, lol. But they really are adorable.




































These two are from above again...


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I knew you'd come through with some great baby pics!

Now, woman, use that zoom! :lol:


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Lol can't. If I zoom in too much, it won't focus and they're blurry as heck.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Okay, okay...I'll wait for them to grow a bit. :wink:

How fast do they grow? Do you know anything about that?


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

No, I'm not really sure. I've been told on the crayfish forum I'm a member at that the 20gal long will only last them about a month before it needs to be upgraded, so I'll see how big they are at that point I suppose.

Lol I can't wait until they're bigger...then I'll actually be able to get GOOD pictures of them. In the meantime, you have to settle for sub-par pictures.

There's quite a few of them in the ground cover now, they seem to be fully enjoying themselves. In some of the pics, there's one that was the intended subject of the picture but if you look into the background, you can see a bunch of his or her siblings peeking out at you.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

They are precious...Almost look like little bugs!


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Lol yeah a little bit.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

All right, new pictures of the Craybies (lol that's what Richard's been calling them, got me doing it now too). The ones that have been free-roaming for a few days have darkened up. They're now a dark brown rather than the orange they were while on their mother. Apparenty, they actually have to molt to be released from mom, so that explains why they were so orange at first and are now darker, now that their shells have hardened over the last few days. She's still got a few hanging on to her (I'm guessing about 20 or so), and you can definitely tell the "newbies" from the rest because they're so orange.

This is a "newbie", fresh off of mom:








And these are the ones who have been cruising for a few days, you can definitely see the difference.








They are TOTALLY loving the "ground cover", taking full advantage of it. I'm hoping this means the survival rate as they mature will stay fairly high. Lol how many do YOU see in each picture?


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

And....they still like to hang out with mom occasionally.


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

Sooo cute!
Cant wait for the next update


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2008)

Please make a video of them...

Great update!

~Ed


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Those pics with mom are absolutely amazing...


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

A video of them would be very boring...they're too small to really be able to see much of what they're doing.

Thanks Kim


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2008)

Anything new with them? Particularly any new pictures?


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

I agree. It's been a couple of months. I can't imagine how big they've gotten now.


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