The Story Of My Marbled Crayfish :)

[comocrayfish5]

on june 6th of this year, my little marbled crayfish arrived in the mail. if you know anything about marbleds, you would know that they are all female and they clone themselves! i thought she was going to be much bigger, but she was very small and hard to find once in the tank

i wanted to share with you my exciting journey with this crayfish and her children... err.. daughters, and then eventually their granddaughters etc etc

some of her "baby" pics from when i first got her. you might need to do some searching!!

then she molted and grew some

and molted again...

and a few molts later. she turned a little blue which is normal. there were the last pics of her before the babies

(that is the tank reflection on the left!)

and then *drumroll please* ...... she laid eggs (this is the awesome cloning part!)

they are the gray balls under her tail

and theses are the more recent pics of her, which her color became sharper looking and browner, with the hatched crayfish still under her tail, they hatched october 4th.

annnnnddddd.... the first baby cray started roaming on sunday!!!! shes the little white-ish thing behind her eye

now they are 12 days old as of tuesday and most of them are roaming. there are about 25ish and still some on momma cray. they are so cute to watch!

and here is my 2 favorite pictures so far
this little gal is under the plant ( i caught her and put her in a little floating tank so i can look at her!!

and this pic was from today

as they grow, i will take pics and post them on this thread, so check in to see how they grow (and make more babies!!!)

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

sooo cute now i want one

 

[comocrayfish5]

they are growing up slowly. they are all molting at different times and momma cray has molted and is turing a brown color again. when the hurricane passes it will post pics of the babies and momma cray.

if i knew ho shipping worked, i would send you one its the thought that counts

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

thanks but my fish might eat them or she might eat my fish just wondering how much would they cost for 1 probably wont buy one though not allowed

 

[comocrayfish5]

i got the momma off ebay for $8

 

[Blitz]

Where else could you get them?


~She's a beauty! How big is she full grown?

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

^ what she said
lololol

 

[comocrayfish5]

they are about 4 inches full grown. they have babies every 2 months. the eggs are held on her tail for 2 weeks, then they hatch and still hang on the mother for a week after that they will start to explore. there are no local places i know of, but there are probably more online places to get them (but ebay will offer the best prices)

some update pics from past t more recent:
momma cray coming out fir the first time after the babies started wondering

taking a fish head

baby crays eating fish

baby climbing on momma cray

momma crays browner color after molting

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

cool ans cute

 

[comocrayfish5]

i officially counted the babies, there are 37. i put black gravel in the tank so i can see them now!!

 

[Bugdozer]

It's a shame it's illegal to keep these in the UK. They sure are cute.

 

[raptorrex]

It's a shame it's illegal to keep these in the UK. They sure are cute.

they all look the same, because they are all the same.
they are no more cute than any other "natural" crayfish.
and they, at leasts, take skill and care to keep and breed.

thank god they are, illegal, here.
as they are such a threat to the environment everywhere.

 

[MBOU]

That is true Raptorrex but bear in mind they are someones pet that they are very proud of!

I love looking at pictures of them because I dont feel the need to own them or see them available. Personally, I would see a ban on all the crayfish as so many are still imported illegally under the wrong name and i doubt many people could tell the difference anyway but the ecosystem would sure know the difference when they get dumped in the rivers when they start chowing down on peoples fish. Same as i think there should be a ban on import of both redand yellow bellied sliders/terrepins which are a nightmare.

But that said, it is interesting to see species kept in other countries.. its one of the benefits of an international forum.

 

[Bugdozer]

It's a shame it's illegal to keep these in the UK. They sure are cute.

they are no more cute than any other "natural" crayfish.

Seriously, what do you gain by disagreeing with my subjective opinion?
I think their colouring makes them cuter, just as someone might think a pink lamb is cuter than a white one.

 

[comocrayfish5]

That is true Raptorrex but bear in mind they are someones pet that they are very proud of!

i am quite proud of them

It's a shame it's illegal to keep these in the UK. They sure are cute.

they are no more cute than any other "natural" crayfish.

Seriously, what do you gain by disagreeing with my subjective opinion?
I think their colouring makes them cuter, just as someone might think a pink lamb is cuter than a white one.

calm down- everyone has different opinions. take the argument somewhere else might i add that some people keep these kinds of crays as feeders for carnivorous fish. if i had cichlids, a baby crayfish would be a great snack