freshwater crayfish - EGGS! - NOW BABIES!

[Elle]

UPDATE:

We've gone from eggs to teeny weeny baby crays!!! I thought the crays had dropped the eggs, but we've now counted at least 6 tiny little craylets.

Naturally this is in the Tank of Doom, which I was going to break down...but now can't do anything with until the babies are big enough to catch.


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Well, we have 4 freshwater crayfish in a 30gallon tank. After going away for a week, I look in and it appears that they were busy while we were away...1 of them now has EGGS and another one has the tail curled under (although I can't quite see if she has eggs or not).

What the hell do I do now?

These guys are in cold water (about 70F) with some plants and driftwood plus a hollow log to hide in. They get fed a mix of sinking algae and protein rish pellets and fresh veg, although they seem to like to eat the java fern as well.

Do I need to raise the water temperature? Feed more?

[Diztrbd1]

sit and wait lol might take a few weeks to hatch but just let them do their own thing ,all should be ok with them. I wouldn't worry bout extra food as they are scavengers and will find whatever they need. And temp should be fine as well. I'm no expert, but when I lived in Indiana, I had crayfish living in a drainage ditch on my property and other than during late fall & winter, there were always pregnant ones in it, so i am guessing temp isn't a big factor
Congrats & good luck

[Nanokid]

if there marbled crays... you dont need to do anything!

[Magistrate]

Don't have to worry at all.
If they are marble crays(redish to redish blue) they breed without a mate.
If they are australian or californian blues they require a mate. And the eggs may be infertile.
Either ways just wait and see.
They take care of their eggs all by themselves.
If they hatch you may want to separate them depending on how overcrowded your tank get. The babies have a tendency to disarm their sibling and eventually eat them.

[taureandragon76]

Provide lots of hiding places, I use lots of clam shell and oyseter shell as they make good hiding places and help to buffer. In my 55g the whole bottom of the tank is layered with shells

[ngo911]

I must be the worst breeder in the world because I've had 3 marble cray berried but they all dropped their eggs!!

[Elle]

Djamm brought these guys home...I think one is a blue lobster and the others are australian crays? They're all sort of reddish (or in one case bluish).

They have lots of space in the tank, but I may add a couple more hidey holes.

[InfraredDream]

ngo911, same here.
My marble cray had eggs 2 times and she lost them, I didn't see the eggs falls down, it seemed she ate them I have no idea what is wrong. Let me know if you figure out a reason.

[Elle]

Sh**! Now we have cray-babies! HELP!

[pt1190]

Sh**! Now we have cray-babies! HELP!

This is a never ending process in a crayfish tank I know!