Crayfish ill or just ready to molt?

[Atom]

My dwarf orange cray has been acting odd since yesterday. I spotted him hiding in the plants not moving at all. He sat still there for maybe 14 hours until I finally moved the plants a bit to see if he was still alive. He was sluggish but eventually moved.

This morning he is out of the hiding area, but he is lying on his side periodically and flicking around with his tail, but mostly sits on the substrate slightly tipped over. I'm not sure if he is ill or having trouble molting. He isn't eating.

I have seen him molt before and know that they tend to hid and fast before/after a molt, but I have never seen him on his side exposed in the open before. Is something wrong?

I did a 50% water change just now.

[Noir ade]

The cray may be having some complications with molting...

Did a quick search on youtube and found this.

Sick Mexican Orange Dwarf Crayfish ( CPO ) - YouTube

[Captured Moments]

I would venture to say it is more ill than a molt. Molting shouldn't take that long. I don't know this type of crayfish but I have the Australian Red Claws. Find out what the correct conditions are for your crayfish and correct your tank conditions if different. (PH, GH, KH). Keep us posted..

[BaoBeiZhu]

dont spook it anymore, as with my past experience, when i spooked my p.alleni they could not finish their molt and resulted in deform or death

[Morainy]

I hope that he pulls through, Atom. One of my crayfish got very quiet for awhile, hanging around in the upper part of the tank on plants. He wasn't lying on his side on the gravel but he was kind of hanging sideways up in the air, not moving. I moved him to another tank that didn't have any other crayfish in it and he perked up and seems fine now. I don't know whether it was the water conditions or if he was being bullied by the other crayfish.

Do you add Equilibrium or Fluval Shrimp minerals to the water?

I hope he pulls through but if he doesn't, pop over and I'll give you one of my guys.

[Jasonator]

My marbled crays sometimes would just flake out on the bottom for hours, and then go back to normal. Then a day later, would do the same. My stress level went way up because they would look dead or hurt or sick, but, when they were ready, there you go - a dead body on the bottom - only, I had one extra cray.... so I went in and poked around, and sure enough, the molt was done. So I left it in there, because they EAT the molt....
so gross!!!!

and this happened in a similar way with more than one cray.

I don't know if the marbled cays are similar enough, but that's my experience.

[Atom]

I just got back from work and he is still the same. Frequent spasms by flicking his tail and falls over on his side or on his back. Here is a picture of him dangling lifeless from the windelov.



There is no sign that he is molting. I don't know what is wrong.

I treat my water with prime and stability like I always have. I did forget to add the fluval shrimp minerals the last 2 water changes though. I have since added some. I going to run some tests now.

I just did another small water change. The amanos and lone white cloud don't seem ill either.

Thanks everyone. I hope he pulls through.

[Morainy]

I hope he pulls through, too. If only he could tell you what was going on.

Here's some info on crayfish that talks a little bit about temperature, food, diseases, etc. But I think in the case of your crayfish, it's a waiting game. There's not much you could change except try to add some iodine (but that sounds scary) or lower the temperature a couple of degrees if your tank is warm. I have no experience with crayfish at all, except recent.

Crayfish Basics

[Atom]

Thanks Maureen. I'll just have to wait. Everything seems to register within the acceptable levels. I can't figure it out.

[Atom]

He's gone. Found his body resting in the leaves today. I don't get it. He was fine for so long.