Crayfish Problem!

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blue2fyre

Blue Fish
Oct 7, 2008
4,440
3
0
41
Wisconsin
Real Name
Ashley
Yesterday morning my CPO was out and pretty active. She was climbing all over the moss and walking around a lot. That afternoon she went to her cave which is normal for her. Last night I put in some food but she didn't come out for it. The shrimp ended up eating it all. No big deal she'll get it next time. This morning I come in and she's laying in the middle of the gravel partially on her side. I thought she might be stuck in the moss so I moved her gently with a net.
She's moving a little slow and has her tail tightly curled under her body. I don't think she's pale. She still looks pretty bright orange. I've only had her for 2 weeks. Usually she's so active but now she's moving a little slow. The shrimp and snails in the tank are acting totally normal. The temp is 70 degrees and I'm getting ready to test my parameters. The last water change was 3 days ago.
 

pbmax

AC Members
Aug 18, 2009
350
1
0
Olympia, WA
I witnessed one of my cajun dwarf crays molting for the first time on Thursday. At first I thought something was terribly wrong because he was on his back or his side and kind of flailing around, but then I realized what was going on :) About 10 - 15 mins later he was out of his shell and acting normal.

Hopefully yours is just taking a bit longer than usual to molt.
 

msjinkzd

AC Members
Feb 11, 2007
18,306
5
89
PA
msjinkzd.com
Real Name
Rachel O'Leary
oh no!! :( I am so bummed for you! Not to sound rude, but are you sure its not a molt? The molts of crays look freakishly like crays. I can send you a new one for half price. I know you really loved that cray :(
 

Bubbles2112

Is someone behind me???
Jun 22, 2008
1,702
0
36
North Carolina, USA
Real Name
Barbara
Is that the cray in your avatar? It is very pretty. I have two things that I can think of right off the bat: Perhaps it was an older cray or she just was having a bad moult and died from sheer exhaustion. What is your Kh looking like? Crays draw the necessary calcium from the water column (not from food) and store it in two spots that they ingest just prior to a moult. If there is not enough calcium ingested they will have a difficult time and often die from exhaustion.

Also the temps for CPO crays should be a bit higher. I keep mine at around 76.
 
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