Crayfish breeding without male... twice

[Deadeye]

Must be aquatic breeding season at my house.

So I know they can hold sperm, I’ve seen it in my tank, but twice?
A few months ago my cobalt blue lobster laid eggs that had been fertilized month before by a male red swamp crayfish. They hatched, I wasn’t successful in raising any of them.
Seems like I have a second chance.
Only weird thing is that this is the second batch, can females store sperm enough for multiple clutches? She hasn’t been exposed to another crayfish since before Covid.

 

[FJB]

There are at least two relatively well known crayfish species which have been shown to be facultative parthenogenic (no need of two individuals for reproduction). And there are others who may hold sperm for more than one reproductive event. In addition, a number of them have a very abbreviated larval period, effectively near direct development.
Very cool that this is all going in your tank. A friend of mine was fortunate enough to have freshwater crabs (family Pseudotelphusidae) reproduce in her vivarium, however she did have a group fo them.

 

[Deadeye]

Thanks!
I’m gonna do it right this time (take the female out when ready to drop) so I can save as many as I can. I’m mostly curious to see why the hybrid offspring will look like. The only two I collected last time were dull gray, but never made it past 1/4 inches.

 

[Deadeye]

Update, the crayfish decided to lay the eggs without me knowing, so I wasn’t able to do anything. Not even sure if they were fertile this time though.

 

[duanes]

This Mutant Crayfish Clones Itself, and It's Taking Over Europe ...www.nytimes.com › 2018/02/05 › science › mutant-crayf...

 

[Deadeye]

I wish I had a marble cray!
This one is just a procambarus alleni, cobalt blue lobster.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

To quote a very famous line from a very famous movie. "Life uh uh finds a way"

Lol in all seriousness tho, it could be just another freak mutation. It could be a hybrid of your suspected specie and the self cloning crayfish for all we know. It could even possibly be from how we selectively breed these animals and the new traits they develop because of it.