Help - Crayfish Climbing Tank Walls

[scampi]

Hi - I've had a Cherax Quad female since Sept last year & she's doing great. She about 17cms now so I imagine she's full grown? She 'was' in a(mature)2ft tank - temp 28c and waters Ammonia/Nitrite 0 - Nitrate 40

Things is, for about the last month she's been literally climbing the tank sides especially in the evening & through the night. I keep her in my bedroom so having her tap dancing on the condensation lid is quite annoying.

I began to think that the tank was too small for her so I transferred her yesterday to a 3ft tank again mature, temp 26c, waters same as the smaller tank but nitrate is lower at 10. Both tanks have fish in them but luckily she's fine with them all.

Well she was at it again before I went bed so I took out the artificial plants & lowered the water level by 2 inches.

Then, come 3am, mega clattering - she'd climbed through a tiny hole on the cond.lid and was sitting there on top of it as if playing the drums. Luckily this tank has a heavy wooden lid so she couldn't get any further thank goodness. Eventually she found her way back down through the little hole & back into the water.

Has anyone got any ideas of why she's doing this, and more importantly how I can either stop her or quieten things down when she's doing it so to speak .

I can't move her downstairs as there's no room.

 

[Baccus]

Hi - I've had a Cherax Quad female since Sept last year & she's doing great. She about 17cms now so I imagine she's full grown? She 'was' in a(mature)2ft tank - temp 28c and waters Ammonia/Nitrite 0 - Nitrate 40

Things is, for about the last month she's been literally climbing the tank sides especially in the evening & through the night. I keep her in my bedroom so having her tap dancing on the condensation lid is quite annoying.

I began to think that the tank was too small for her so I transferred her yesterday to a 3ft tank again mature, temp 26c, waters same as the smaller tank but nitrate is lower at 10. Both tanks have fish in them but luckily she's fine with them all.

Well she was at it again before I went bed so I took out the artificial plants & lowered the water level by 2 inches.

Then, come 3am, mega clattering

- she'd climbed through a tiny hole on the cond.lid and was sitting there on top of it as if playing the drums. Luckily this tank has a heavy wooden lid so she couldn't get any further thank goodness. Eventually she found her way back down through the little hole & back into the water.

Has anyone got any ideas of why she's doing this, and more importantly how I can either stop her or quieten things down when she's doing it so to speak

.

I can't move her downstairs as there's no room.

Try giving her some different lengths of PVC pipe to hide in and try feeding her some carrot at night so that it is hopefully kept amused by eating. I had two crawtchies (Australian jargon) in an old bath tub and the demented things where always getting out and wondering down the road. Yes literally my Dad would see them out in the gutter wondering off as he left for work and would tell me so I could retreive them before they died from lack of water, got picked off by crows or squished by traffic. They seem to be pre-programmed to roam as over in Biloela on rainy evenings it was nothing to have a local crawtchie farms red claws escaping his dams and wondering off to find new abodes.
If more/ larger hidey holes and extra nightly food doesn't keep her in her tank all night the only other option I could suggest is make a firm fitting mesh/ wire lid that completely covers the tank surface and even comes down the sides a bit. This will most likely still have to be weighed down but your condensation glass should hopefully be heavy enough. Some floating live plants might also slow down her escape bids, but then she will most likely just eat them as well.