Blue Crayfish acting odd

[fishmomma]

I have a female blue crayfish that I've had for just over 2 months now. For the vast majority of that time she has spent most of her days in her little cave, coming out early mornings and evenings to clean up the bottom of the tank and act tough. Today she has been out all day, climbing the plants, sitting on top of the water hoses, trying to climb the class and swimming all over the place....any clues on what's up? No food change, did clean the tank yesterday but I do it once a week and it was no different than before, new new tank mates, nothing is different other than re stuck some of the plants to the bottom that had come loose, but same plants???

Mary :huh:

 

[pedzola]

Don't mean to scare you, but my crayfish did this just before he died.

He would always hide in his cave, coming out once in a while for whatever reason. Then all of a sudden it's like he went nuts. He would run laps around the tank, climb on things, swim backwards, and he was just goin nuts.

Then after a day or 2 acting crazy like that he just dropped dead. I dunno what it was. No changes in the tank whatsoever.... had him a few months before this happened.

 

[fishmomma]

Thanks...I was kind of wondering if this is where it is heading? I'll let you know if I have the same result. She sure looks healthy but I'll just wait and see, I'm not sure what I could do to prevent it. I have no other tank to transfer her into.

Mary

 

[Kissofthegorami]

Thats what a happy crayfish does. Mine was all over the tank. Her favorite thing to do was climb the plants and try to catch the fish. Eventually she got too heavy for the plants and they would bend when she tried to climb them, pretty funny. Crayfish molt, u probably know about this. And they a inactive right before, during, and right after they molt. She may have been shy intitially and then molted so was inactive. Now she is herself. From now on she should be more active. Younger crayfish are more crazy about running around the tank mine started at 1" and she grew to 6" and ate the male. They are less active as adults but still its normal for them to climb everything.

 

[fishmomma]

Well that is some good news. She is about 5-6" and yes, has molted...thought she had died when I saw the claws lying outside of her cave...but then lo and behold out she came looking better than ever. She certainly does seem to be having fun. The fish are all looking at her with odd interest trying to figure out what the heck she is up to but so far they are all holding their own. I"ll keep my fingers crossed that she has finally decided that she is going to be an active participant of the tank.

Mary

 

[fish_breeder_05]

mine was very active. I had him since he was 1" and he ate tubifex worms whole, shrimp pelets, and his favorate and mine were algea disks. he would take them and turn them and only chew the edges until none was left. sometimes he would tell me that he wanted to be handfeed by climbing a false plant that goes to the top of the tank. I think your cray might be sheading. If it is curuling its tail back and swimming backwards thats probably it. mine shed once every tto weeks because of all the feeding, but it was at night. I saw a sheading video here if this helps:
http://www.bluecrayfish.com/

I could not find the specific spot because they moved a few things around but I think its inthere

 

[graphicdesign_r]

My crayfish is the largest and most active inhabitant of my tank, climbs plants, swims, crawls all over everything. That said...

If you're cray is abnormally active, it may be trying to escape because something is making it uncomfortable, water quality, parasites, temperature, etc. Does the shell look abnormal at all? Are there any aggresive fish that nip at his antennae? See if there's anything physically off about him. I have heard that before crays molt they "itch", I have also noticed that the shell will get more opaque (you can only notice by looking at the eyes on mine which cloud up a little right before molt). Any of these symptoms?

Good luck.