Blue Crayfish Molting Timeline

[aloys]

I bought a blue crayfish back in Feb 2009. It was tiny, probably only like 2 inches long and the claws were super small, they looked like the tiny scissors on small swiss army knives.

I put him in a standard 29 gallon tank and started feeding him algae disks which he loved and he would eat as much as i wanted to give him. He molted multiple times, probably 3-5 in the first few months and everytime he got much bigger. So by June he was friggin huge, at least 6 inches with monster claws.

Like any cray, he was an escape artist and i found him on the floor a few different times, each time I would put a rock in a 5 gallon bucket and put about an inch of tank water in it so he could get used to the water again and not drown instantly. So each time he would be fine. I closed all openings at the top of the tank, putting screen like material trying to cover up all openings. So this seemed to work for a while and he didnt break out.

Then in July he disappeared, I searched all over the place and couldnt find him. Then about 5 days later I found him a good 20 feet from the tank jammed in underneath a DVD rack dried up completely. Little bastard had it made and he committed suicide!

 

[BTB0923]

BTB, I know this thread started awhile back but I've enjoyed reading it. I've got 7 Crays now and have a list tacked to the wall with each of their names and the dates they moult. I love peering into each tank every morning to see if there was any midnight moulting going on while I was asleep I've got a male C. quad about 6"-7" (without claws) I've had him a couple months, he's only moulted once so far.
I don't know if it's normal for them to produce eggs without a male present but I'd guess it is. Fish can lay eggs even if there's only female fish in there.

Thanks. Thats cool that you keep track of the moulting schedule for more than one cray. Do they all follow a similar timeline?

I bought a blue crayfish back in Feb 2009. It was tiny, probably only like 2 inches long and the claws were super small, they looked like the tiny scissors on small swiss army knives.

I put him in a standard 29 gallon tank and started feeding him algae disks which he loved and he would eat as much as i wanted to give him. He molted multiple times, probably 3-5 in the first few months and everytime he got much bigger. So by June he was friggin huge, at least 6 inches with monster claws.

Like any cray, he was an escape artist and i found him on the floor a few different times, each time I would put a rock in a 5 gallon bucket and put about an inch of tank water in it so he could get used to the water again and not drown instantly. So each time he would be fine. I closed all openings at the top of the tank, putting screen like material trying to cover up all openings. So this seemed to work for a while and he didnt break out.

Then in July he disappeared, I searched all over the place and couldnt find him. Then about 5 days later I found him a good 20 feet from the tank jammed in underneath a DVD rack dried up completely. Little bastard had it made and he committed suicide!

That sux. Mine got out one night about 3 months ago. I found her in a downstairs bathroom all dried up but she ended up being fine. She made it all the way down a flight of stairs somehow.

 

[BTB0923]

She molted again last Sunday. It looks like she's maybe a half inch longer than before....

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

nice! thanks for keeping this updated!

 

[BTB0923]

Time to update the timeline again! Unfortunately my c. quad had a very bad molt and lost both of her front claws in the process. The tank in which she was once the queen ruling over her roomate the black ghost knife, she was now helpless. Needless to say, I had to move her into her own tank. Anyways, the timeline is getting a little cluttered so her molts have occurred in the following periods of time...

1st molt span: 3 days
2nd molt span: 7 days
3rd molt span: 17 days
4th molt span: 30 days
5th molt span: 46 days
6th molt span: 123 days
7th molt span: 260 days
8th molt span: 419 days

As you can see the span between molts grows exponentially every time. I just hope the next one happens a bit prematurely so my girl has a chance to grow some new front claws.

 

[demonte1997]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this. I wonder if my prawn will shed in a similar fashion. At first it seemed like he would shed once a week. Then after three sheds it took a little over two weeks and now I'm at day 32 waiting patiently to see what he will do.

 

[spadoc79]

how long can she live?