Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

[ghoastgirl1]

Hey guys,

Well last week I finally got to see why Gumbo (my largest Florida Blue Cray) who was not being social and coming out to say hello to me like she typically did. She's been just chilling in her cave for the past couple weeks. James had to leave to go to work early and I asked him to take Etouffee back home with him. The reason being that he was mating constantly with Jambalaya and cut off part of her claw (also to stop anymore crayfish breeding). So I take out my little flashlight and look around the tank...the fish are sleeping as normal but WAIT, Gumbo is sitting there with about 200 little brown eggs under her butt. BINGO. She hasn't been eating any of the food I've put in for her, at least I haven't seen her eat. I'm concerned about Jambalaya and that she might be pregnant as well...just not seeing any eggs yet. She on the other hand has been eating tremendously so maybe she's eating more because the eggs neat stuff. I'm new to this thing so any advice on the subject would be great. Maybe at the next meeting I'll have some crays for folks to bid on. What I've heard is that the babies will eat one another until a smaller group is left. I've also heard a rumor that since this is Gumbos first batch of eggs that maybe not many if any will survive. How long is the typically gestation for a crayfish? When they hatch will she start eating again? Will Jambalaya eat her babies? Will the fish eat the babies? So many questions! Should I separate the babies if I want them to survive?

[Nickintex]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Just love the names you gave them! :)

[Spot86t]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Congrats!  
You better go buy a pond!  Usually they stay in their caves and don't eat when they're berried.  Here's some of what I know from research and breeding crays the last few years...

Gestation period is roughly a month.  

Only do small water changes while momma's berried - a drastic change often triggers moulting, and if momma moults she'll lose all her eggs.

Typical batch is 200-300 micro crays.  Momma won't usually try to eat them until they're a month or so old.  

Biggest killer of baby crays is rough moult - make sure you put a drop or 2 of iodine per 10 gallons so their old and new shell easily separate for moulting.  If they can make it through the first few weeks of moults, they're probably going to be fine.  They will molt almost every other day if they're eating well until the're a week or 2 old.

It can take a couple of weeks for all the baby crays to get big(brave?) enough to leave the security of momma's tail.  

They will fight with each other from the time they start walking and eating on their own.   I've seen tiny baby crays try to catch tiny guppy fry - they have that hunting instinct from the start it seems.  It's funny to watch tho  - at that age, the fish are usually quicker.

I feed them with shrimp flake or ground pellets.  I put the slightly crushed flake in a cup with tankwater and shake it up so that it all sinks when I pour it in the tank.  Easiest way to grind pellets is to get a pepper mill or a salt mill.  I got a sea salt mill at wal-mart and used the salt for water changes - but make sure it's pure 100% salt if you do that.  I shook it up with water too to make sure it would sink.  They will also eat anachris (the plant) when they're a few weeks old.  Floating plants (including anachris) provide more "surface area" for the babies - reducing fights between siblings.  if you happen to want to cook up some shrimp for yourself then pull the raw tail shells off, rinse well and toss a few in the tank for newly molted ones to eat.  They'll appreciate the extra calcium since often their unmolted siblings will steal and eat their old moults.  

Keep an eye on Etouffee...  They can hold the males sperm for a good while before using it to fertilize their berries.  Often they will molt shortly before berrying.

That's all I can think of right now, but I think I hit on at least most of the important stuff.

[JStrider]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

INGREDIENTS
1 (35-pound) sack live crawfish
1 (12-ounce) bottle Crystal Hot Sauce
1 to 2 (26-ounce) boxes of table salt
3 ounces Zatarain’s Shrimp & Crab Boil liquid concentrate (3/4 of a 4-ounce bottle)
3 ounces cayenne pepper
8 to 10 medium new potatoes, such as Red Bliss or Yukon gold
4 small yellow onions, cut in half
INSTRUCTIONS
Find out if your crawfish have been purged. If they haven’t, soak in fresh water for 10 minutes (some people say you need to salt—you don’t).
While you’re waiting, fill an 80-quart pot (fitted with a strainer insert) halfway with water and bring to a boil over a large outdoor burner over high heat. Add hot sauce, salt, Zatarain’s, and cayenne pepper.
Add potatoes and onions to the pot. (No need to peel either.) Boil vegetables for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cover a table with newspapers, flattened cardboard boxes, or plastic trays for serving the crawfish.
Add half the crawfish to the pot. After 5 minutes turn off the heat, cover, and let the crawfish steep to absorb the flavors for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and dump onto the table. Repeat with the rest of the crawfish (you can boil 2 to 3 batches of crawfish in the same water-seasoning mixture).

[Spot86t]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

You forgot the paper towels and beer.....

[ghoastgirl1]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Thanks Spot! You're like the Einstein of crayfish :)
I was tank watching and noticed mama Gumbo walking around and eating some of the pellets I put in for her. It's very amusing to watch her attempt to climb the drift wood and shuffling the eggs around in tiny waves. I'm anticipating the eggs to be hatching soon hopefully. With all this stuff happening with Gumbo its making studying hard!

[ghoastgirl1]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Update!
Well I took a look at mama crays tail, the eggs are looking more gooey kind of like black eyed peas.
What stage does this put the babies at in life if anyone knows?

[Spot86t]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

I would venture to guess that in a couple more weeks they'll like micro-crays.  some will grow faster than others and will venture out on their own for short adventures.  The slower growing ones will eventually catch up.

[ghoastgirl1]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

So at least a few weeks. That's good. Although..I'm very concerned. I have a problem, this weekend James and I will be moving my aquarium, crays and all, to his new house. I'm going to try to keep as much of the water in 5G buckets as possible however I know it won't be possible for all of it. Is there a risk that Gumbo will molt and lose her babies? I also think Jambalaya might be pregnant too. Any advice on moving them? James and I discussed it and we were going to leave a few inches of water in the bottom of the tank and leave Gumbo and Jambalaya there for the cruise back to Houston so we don't have to touch them at all. Any other suggestions?

[ghoastgirl1]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Update on Gumbo! She is officially a mother crayfish! Although she had probably several hundred eggs I've counted about 6 micro crays on her tail and this evening when I was tank watching they actually started jumping off and walking around. I'm very excited! I'm also really concerned about them getting sucked into my filter! Will my other female cray eat them? I was gone for the past week because of James moving into his new house otherwise I'm sure I would have more to tell! Oh so exciting

[rrocket2002]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Congradulations!  Grandma...

I left my female in the tank with babies.  I didn't notice her ever eating her young.   I did remove daddy early on.  You said you only saw 6 babies?  I would think there would be alot more than that.  I would just tie some filter padding around your filter intake or use some pantyhose.

I had my pair together for a couple of weeks and I haven't seen my female for about that long.  I guess I'll found out soon enough.

[Mzungu]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

:clap:  That's great!

Post pictures if you can get some!

[CichlidFan]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Yes pictures please, congrats....and good luck.

CF

[ghoastgirl1]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

Thanks guys! Well I've read that their first batch of eggs can sometimes only yield less than 10 babies because they're inexperienced or something. I'm hoping that at least a few will make it.

[JStrider]

Re: Florida Blue Cray Pregnancy Questions

I'm not seeing the babies running around anymore...  hopefully they are just hiding... it is a pretty big tank and they are very little...