Cray Just Went Balistic And Keeled Over!

[Chris_R]

I have no idea what just happened to my cray, he's about 18 months old and seemed to have been in fine health up until about 10 minutes ago.
He has been trying to escape most of the day which is nothing unusual, he goes through phases of scaling the heaters or filter pipework. Just as we sat down for dinner I noticed that he was walking backwards quite fast bashing into the rocks and sides of the tank. Just gone back to him to see how he was doing and his remaining claw (he lost one a few weeks back after he jumped the tank onto the hard floor) was just lying on the side next to him, his mandibles around his mouth where still fluttering about so I assumed he was stuck on his back due to the last claw - I was considering he would need to be put down at this stage, I would hate to see him not be able to look after himself due to having no claws - I flipped him over back on his belly and he just seems to have passed away now.

I see no other signs of illness in his tank mates which are fish, we had just put in some plants this afternoon and wondering if it could be a case of them being poison to him somehow, he took his usual little taster from them as he normally does. They came from a reputable LFS and where advised on some of them by the sales assistant.
The only other thing I can think is that his injury the other week had become infected perhaps?

 

[Spishkey]

sure he wasnt trying to moult i have heard of pople interuppting a moult and the cray dying (was a poster just last week saying it too!)

crays claws will grow back, i have one who lost both her claws in a fight and now after a few moults they are starting to grow back

what are your water stats in ammonia nitrite and nitrate?

 

[Chris_R]

sure he wasnt trying to moult i have heard of pople interuppting a moult and the cray dying (was a poster just last week saying it too!)

crays claws will grow back, i have one who lost both her claws in a fight and now after a few moults they are starting to grow back

what are your water stats in ammonia nitrite and nitrate?

I am 99% sure he wasn't moulting. He was very much uncharacteristically sitting in the middle of the tank - he normally retreats to his cave to moult, as I understand it that is normal behavior due to them being vulnerable during this time. It was also very odd that his second claw had just dropped off by him! I can only think he bashed it while I wasn't looking resulting in the damage and possibly "shock" causing his death. He also very much moults being the right way up rather than on his back.
Given the water conditions are within usual tolerances for my tank and the other varieties of life are doing just fine I have to think the loss of the second has something to do with his untimely demise. I will get another test done to check again though.
Maybe he had damaged it which is what caused him to go mad running around the tank in reverse? This could have then led to him damaging it further ultimately removing it with a further knock against a rock or something.

I am really not sure what happened to cause it.

 

[saltynay]

They normally only try and escpae if there is something wrong with there environment..... perhaps what ever was wrong finaly killed it.