Cray - up and died

[croseberry]

hi folks,

my son has an electric blue female that had two hatchings over the past few months. the little ones from both hatchings are doing well and getting bigger, which is cool.

sadly this morning when he went to feed the crew the mom (Freddie) was laying still by her hidey spot. He gave her a nudge with a net but no response. He's heart broken and we're not sure what happened. He hasn't removed her from the tank yet, should we or will the young ones just take care of it?

Since we don't know why or how she died should we perhaps remove her so that it doesn't pass to the little ones?

thanks for any help!

[msjinkzd]

i would remove her, her body decomposting will pollute the tank water. sorry for you and your sons loss. can you give us more info on the tank? how big, when did you set it up, how often do you clean the tank, what kind of filtration, what are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings? all this info can help us figure out how to help you.

[FtwayneFish]

im sorry to hear. But i second removing the body. the baby crays should take care of themselves. tell your son its like charlottes web? again sorry to hear.

[croseberry]

I did do a quick test of the water after we took Freddie out, water quality was right where it should be. We did find after examining her that she had quite a nasty gash in the arm pit area of her front left claw.

We think she might have landed on or moved across one of the kids and they reacted and got her in the process.

All is going well with the little ones and so far all are getting along quite well. My son has found homes for about 4 of them and would like to keep a few for himself.... still about 30 to worry about after that. :)

Thanks again for the help!

[thebullit]

yes possibly the younge might of been deffending itself asthe female will only look out for her hatchlings for about 2-3 days.

mines berried at the moment her 1st clutch.....19 days gone so far another week left.. fingers crossed.