Possible ideas to liven up a cray tank?

Alright, so I couldn't get a good pic of the belly (oh the downfalls of living alone), but I did look at it and it's definitely male. So if I were to get another cray, do I have the sales person hold every crayfish upside down for me to inspect? Or are there other ways to tell?

Also, here's some better top-down pics, I know that view is crucial in determining species:

IMG_0988.jpgIMG_0989.jpg

I know, I'm a horrible photographer (I only have a phone). I live in Florida, so I'm betting the "feeder" crawfish come from somewhere close. Could I possibly add a few crawfish if I create enough territories?

IMG_0988.jpg IMG_0989.jpg
 
powellmacaque said:
So if I were to get another cray, do I have the sales person hold every crayfish upside down for me to inspect? Or are there other ways to tell?
Click to expand...

Those claspers (or lack thereof) are really the best way to tell. Some people can give you a good indication of the sex based on claw sizes (like SubRosa earlier in the thread), but I'm not that good.

powellmacaque said:
I live in Florida, so I'm betting the "feeder" crawfish come from somewhere close. Could I possibly add a few crawfish if I create enough territories?
Click to expand...

The areola on that crawfish makes me think it is Procambarus alleni. The blue variant of that species is probably the most popular blue crayfish in the aquarium hobby (besides the Australian Cherax crawfish). P. alleni makes perfect sense, because they are endemic to Florida.

The general rule of thumb on crawfish per tank is one per 10 gallons. A 20 gallon, by that rule, could technically accommodate 2 crawfish of that species. So you could get another one, but be sure to provide enough hiding spots. Cut PVC pipes, rock caves, etc are all great options.

When/if you decide to add another one, figure out what species it is before adding it. I'm sure the folks here would be happy to help identify (or you can go to http://www.reddit.com/r/crayfish and request an ID there). You definitely wouldn't want to add any Australian or European crawfish, but if your next one comes from the feeder tank again, I seriously doubt that would be a problem. Some people say it's bad to mix species even from the same genus as they supposedly get more aggressive. I honestly don't know how the crawfish could distinguish between members of a separate species, but perhaps they can. I currently have two white Procambarus clarkii and one blue Procambarus alleni (same species as the one you have) in a 20 gallon long right now. They're still juveniles and I'll move the P. alleni to a new tank soon, but I haven't seen anything like inter-species aggression.
 
If you can get a good look at a bunch of similar sized individuals, pick the ones with the shortest, thinnest tips on the claws. It's not 100%, but if you have a large # to work with it's pretty reliable for Procambarus species. Have the fishcatcher put a couple of your selections in one of those plastic viewers they use, hold it above your head and look up. You'd do better to get more than one female . Males can be very hard on them.
 
Btw it probably is an Alleni, but without either having it in my hands or knowing exactly where it came from I'm hesitant to say definitively. But it is the most common NA cray in the pet trade which helps. Other lesser known species which could be confused with Alleni are more likely to be wild collected for the bait trade, or bycatch in feeder ponds.
 
That's the next most common. I had a bunch of them come in as tiny little 1/2"-3/4" babies in a Ghost Shrimp shipment. I was positive they were Alleni until they were about 2" long.
 
So I appear to have solved many of my "dilemmas."

For one, I checked the species tag on the tank at the lfs and it said the crays were Procambarus paeninsulanus, which makes sense considering I live in the Tampa Bay region (which is in the peninsula).

I bought two females (it was much easier to tell differences when I had a group to compare), one that is whitish and another that is more of a true red/orange than my male. I'm going to build as many caves and territories as possible to avoid aggression and I took SubRosa's advice on getting two females to avoid one getting brutalized.

I'll report back to let ya'll know how it went and ask further questions! Thanks for the help!
 
That's pretty cool! Glad they had it labeled at the LFS. I'd love to see pics of the different colors.
 
From my experience breeding larger species of crayfish, it's best to do the the following when you want them to breed. Put the female in the tank with the male. This is because adults are very territorial. If you introduce an adult female into the tank of an adult male, he's less likely to attack, he's expecting to get lucky. If you put the male into the territory of the female, the odds of a fight are higher, though not 100%.
 
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