Crayfish Journal (Cambarellus Patzcuarensis sp. Orange)

[Yadokari]

IMPORTANT NOTE: I kept that lone survivor in a lee's breeder net. When I placed the new batch of babies into the net, I watched the older baby and the new baby interact.

The older, much larger one, began acting very aggressively towards the newborns. At one point, it clipped onto one, but just barely. He did it to two different babies, both got away. At this point, I know he'll eventually get one and kill it. Thus, I moved him out and into a plastic container with a slight open on the lid. This should isolate him from the parents (this container is still in the parent tank) and keep the babies of similar size safe. I don't plan on keeping these babies in the net for more than a week. It really depends on my results tomorrow. If I see dead bodies, then I will have to place them elsewhere or perhaps set-up a small new tank for them with a larger area.

KEYPOINTS: If you decide to isolate newborns, make sure you keep them separate by each generation. Even with a small size difference, the larger one WILL attempt to kill the smaller one. I know this might be a "duhhh, captain obvious" note but it can get ambiguous. Look at the image above again and see the small size difference. That small size difference makes a huge difference in aggression. Young ones of similar size are safe with each other (only to a certain point though! I will update on this eventually)

 

[AquaVu]

Great Post! Congratulations and good luck on your second batch of craybies.

 

[Yadokari]

Well, time for an update:
Doing some experiments on how young I can start transferring out CPO babies.
I gave out a handful of these, brought 3 to the local club meet and a few others to my friends.

My friends had success in keeping them just fine after the transfer. No deaths were recorded.

3 people got the baby CPO in the club. I only heard back from 1... Uhm... A little disappointed, since I did say to please inform me with an update and got nothing. For the one person who did report back though, thanks! And apparently, it did fine in the transition.
I'm now doing an experiment on shipping them at a young age. Let's see how this goes ;-)

An update on the CPO babies though, the young are growing quite nicely. Much faster growth than the first batch. I've been crushing ramshorn snails daily. About 2-3 snails each day goes into the breeder net. I also threw in some Thiara Winteri inside the net to help clean up uneaten crushed snails.

I can tell the number dwindled form 40 to perhaps 30s. Not a surprise, small enclosed space. It's fine though, losing a dozen isn't a big deal with a brood size this big!

 

[bettabrat]

Well, time for an update:
Doing some experiments on how young I can start transferring out CPO babies.
I gave out a handful of these, brought 3 to the local club meet and a few others to my friends.

My friends had success in keeping them just fine after the transfer. No deaths were recorded.

3 people got the baby CPO in the club. I only heard back from 1... Uhm... A little disappointed, since I did say to please inform me with an update and got nothing. For the one person who did report back though, thanks! And apparently, it did fine in the transition.
I'm now doing an experiment on shipping them at a young age. Let's see how this goes ;-)

An update on the CPO babies though, the young are growing quite nicely. Much faster growth than the first batch. I've been crushing ramshorn snails daily. About 2-3 snails each day goes into the breeder net. I also threw in some Thiara Winteri inside the net to help clean up uneaten crushed snails.

I can tell the number dwindled form 40 to perhaps 30s. Not a surprise, small enclosed space. It's fine though, losing a dozen isn't a big deal with a brood size this big!

Thanks for the update! No new pix? I bet they are cute! If you decide to ship let me know, I keep journals I wouldn't mind giving you updates. :thm:

 

[htadothk]

Thanks for the info and photos Yadokari ! I just got my CPOs a couple of days ago. I look forward to reading your updates !

 

[Yadokari]

Baby pictures!

This tank grows blue-green algae like crazy because I keep nitrates freakishly low. Doesn't really harm the inhabitants, kind of annoying but oh well. I'll deal with the algae later on, when I care for it. It's not one of my focused planted tanks, just a breeding tank. haha...

Normally, people use moss in these breeder nets. I don't. I use algae!
:lol:

 

[bettabrat]

woohoo pix! They are so cute! Thx for sharing with us.

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

Wow, good job! I hope to one day have some of those little beauties. Keep on breedin'.

 

[Yadokari]

For anyone who is interested, I now have them up for sale in the Classified Ads section

 

[Yadokari]

And because I have neglected this thread for so long without any new updates, here's some pictures of the batch that I had for sale. Well, I sold SOME of their siblings but kept a majority of them.

There are various sizes. Some of them are clearly runts in the batch and others are gigantic. Good thing I put them in breeder nets though. The runts may not have survived without that protection. Their size difference is noticeably different. Biggest ones are around 1/3 of an inch but their body size is still quite petite.
It's hard to compare the size difference in length... they grow stockier more so than longer.





Another update is that my single male passed away! Prior to passing away, his shell started to get like a brown smudge to it. Almost like there's dirt on it. A week later, he died. I picked him up when I found him dead and found some sort of like "staghorn algae looking thing" on him, which was creating those brown smudges. You had to have gotten a real close look to have seen that the brown smudge wasn't dirt but rather something else. Fungus perhaps? I am no expert. It didn't spread to anything else in the tank, so that's good news. How it got in there, I have no clue.

In any case, I still have two females. One of them gave birth a few days ago, another one is carrying eggs and should give birth within a week or so.

At least my male left a legacy And he also helped us learn more about these beautiful and cute crays!

RIP Male cray! Thank you for entertaining me.
(He was the main cray that would charge at me and wave his claw at me to GTFO whenever I look into my tank)

NOTE: Yes, I am aware that this tank has algae. I don't really do much planted stuff in their tank. I don't want to disturb the females as they are always carrying eggs it seems... Furthermore, there's no co2 in the tank. It's not really my planted tank focus. I have other tanks for that ;-)