Cherax Quadricarinatus (blue Lobster)

[kamber]

Here is my biggest one, i have 3 in total. (Click thumb for full sized pics!)

 

[shroob]

Nice, they look interesting.

Just a quick question though, have you ever bred them? And if so, how hard were they to breed?

 

[kamber]

Nice, they look interesting.

Just a quick question though, have you ever bred them? And if so, how hard were they to breed?

Yeah they are fascinating to watch. Especially when they are eating blood worms, they scoop them up with there crazy little arms going mad. They also love to build there own little homes, mine are currently rearranging bits of slate and stone at the moment, they move some substrate and rocks around! Its mad, i caught the big guy moving some pebbles which were almost as big as him to blockade his newly dug out cave.

No i've never bred them, i have a female although she is small at the moment so no doubt they will breed. From what i've heard from people who have, they breed quite easily.

p.s. They won't do much to fish when they are small but once they have shed a few time sand those pincers get big they will carve up smaller fish specially the slower ones. The guy in the LFS said he puts any "ropey looking guppies" in and they are gone within a few minutes.

 

[raptorrex]

what great Crays you have there. lol i can just see the male, under the rock just behind the claws in the third pic.

they will indeed breed with little trouble, but you will need to move the young Cray, redclaw do not have a laval stage, out of the tank as soon as they become free from mum.

if you wish to breed, you will need to increase the time the light is on, 14 hours is a good start. put the temp up to 82-84. it is also best to have a female that is smaller than the male. apart from that it should just happen.

 

[kamber]

what great Crays you have there. lol i can just see the male, under the rock just behind the claws in the third pic.

they will indeed breed with little trouble, but you will need to move the young Cray, redclaw do not have a laval stage, out of the tank as soon as they become free from mum.

if you wish to breed, you will need to increase the time the light is on, 14 hours is a good start. put the temp up to 82-84. it is also best to have a female that is smaller than the male. apart from that it should just happen.

Thanks, yeah will need to wait for the male to get bigger the female is bigger than him atm , i have a spare tank i can move the young to if/when they breed Thanks for the info about the lights and the temp, they are at 74f atm and the light is on about 8-10 hours a day.

Do you know how often they are supposed to shed? seems to be every 4-5 weeks to me at the moment.

 

[raptorrex]

what great Crays you have there. lol i can just see the male, under the rock just behind the claws in the third pic.

they will indeed breed with little trouble, but you will need to move the young Cray, redclaw do not have a laval stage, out of the tank as soon as they become free from mum.

if you wish to breed, you will need to increase the time the light is on, 14 hours is a good start. put the temp up to 82-84. it is also best to have a female that is smaller than the male. apart from that it should just happen.

Thanks, yeah will need to wait for the male to get bigger the female is bigger than him atm , i have a spare tank i can move the young to if/when they breed Thanks for the info about the lights and the temp, they are at 74f atm and the light is on about 8-10 hours a day.

Do you know how often they are supposed to shed? seems to be every 4-5 weeks to me at the moment.

the time between moults increases as the Cray age, sadly there is no way of telling how old a Cray is. so all i can say is the period between moults will lengthen. this said, when young feeding too much protein it will increase the the number of moults, as the cray gains weight too quickly. when young its not too much of a problem, but when they are older 9-12 months, it could lead to death by failed moult, the Cray being too big to extract itself from its old shell.

 

[kamber]

the time between moults increases as the Cray age, sadly there is no way of telling how old a Cray is. so all i can say is the period between moults will lengthen. this said, when young feeding too much protein it will increase the the number of moults, as the cray gains weight too quickly. when young its not too much of a problem, but when they are older 9-12 months, it could lead to death by failed moult, the Cray being too big to extract itself from its old shell.

Ok thanks i'll make sure not to feed them too much, usually make sure they all get some prawn, and a good few bloodworm every day, would you say this was excessive for them? I did read somewhere that some inverts can go a good few days between feeds. Not sure how well that applies to these in particular tho.

 

[raptorrex]

[
Ok thanks i'll make sure not to feed them too much, usually make sure they all get some prawn, and a good few bloodworm every day, would you say this was excessive for them? I did read somewhere that some inverts can go a good few days between feeds. Not sure how well that applies to these in particular tho.

yep a feed every two seems to be ideal, but you do need to give mostly veg matter, saving the meat/bloodworm for treats. i notice my Cray ripping up plants, and totally anhialating them. i was not till later i worked out, it was not just vandalism, but the cray killing the plants, which it would return to later, when they had rotted a bit for a munch.