Cool...but creepy - MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum

SinisterKisses · 06-17-2008, 01:59 AM

So the female Cherax sp. "Zebra" crayfish bred with her boyfriend (for the first time!) a couple days after our move last month. I've been trying to keep a close eye on her, but she obviously hides a lot so I usually can only get a good look every few days. Well, the Friday before last I managed to coax her out with food and saw that after over a month, her eggs had finally hatched. After checking my crayfish resources, I learned that once they're hatched, they will keep them for about another two weeks before they're released, so I promptly set up another 20gal long as my crayfish nursery tank. I've been keeping an even closer eye on my girl since then, as I didn't want to move her until I had to. Well, last night as I was on my way to bed and went in to shut the light off, I peeked in at her to see that she looked ready to burst with mini cray babies. I grabbed a net and immediately moved her to the nursery tank - they're so close to popping that three of them even came loose when I gently scooped her into the net. They are so freaking cute! Lol. So far she hasn't released the rest of the group, just the odd one here and there that has broken free...but seriously, they're adorable. They're about 3/8" right off of mom, and you can see their little pinchers and everything.

Anyway, to start with, here's their tank:

It's not meant to be pretty (though it actually was before I added the "ground cover" just now), it's just meant to be as complicated as possible with tons of hiding places, as baby crays are cannibals. It will also need to be upgraded in about a month I think...I'll be clearing out my 46gal which has the same footprint as a 55gal at that point.

And now to the cool but creepy part, lol. Mom is still carrying around the clutch, but they are barely clinging on. If you look at her from above, her tail is about double with width that it actually is, from them poking out. It's so cool but looks creepy at the same time...all these moving little things with black eyes and legs everywhere, lol. These pics actually turned out better than expected...I took them sideways with one hand as they were taken from the side of the tank, which only has about a 6" gap between it and the wall. I basically just guessed at a target and clicked, lol.

Cord got in the way of this one...

Lol if you look reallllllly closely on the second picture, you can see one of those tiny little pinchers...