'm on my 13th generation of crays now, the original parents are long long gone. I'd like to mention before hand that inbreeding crays has no caused any deformities yet, and I have had over 1000 crays easily.
The Basics
First you will need to aquire two crayfish, perferably 1 male and atleast 1 female. To tell that you simply need to flip the crayfish on its back and check.
Heres a great picture that I got from the site that helped me out way back when.
I bought two wild caught red crays as my original two crays, all of my crays are blue or white now. You want to make sure that the crays you get are the same species Ii've never tried interbreeding). Because different species of crayfish come from different areas of the world, your water temp will differ. Crayfish also have unpredictable temperaments, some species are more aggressive than others, so keep that in mind.
Housing
Your tank should have a large footprint, A 20 long works well. Having lots of hiding places is key, if theres just one cave the two crays will fight for it. You want to have many places, rocks, caves, pieces of pipe, anything that they can hide in will be great. If you catch crays out of a creek or something, they probably won't need a heater, but I have a had a heater with the wild crays I bought. The temperature range I have had crays live well in ranges from 64-84. If you buy a tropical cray then they will not have the same tolerances.
Water Parameters
Crays are very susceptable to sudden PH changes, but they tolerate a wide range. Treat them like fish, and they will thrive.
Feeding
Crays are scavengers, they eat anything they can get. Or catch for that matter. Do not keep small fish with crays, they will get snapped up eventually. I feed my crays flake food, jumbo shrimp, red shrimp, and brine shrimp flakes. They will eat whenever, just don't feed in excess. Drop a shrimp in for each cray, they will take it and probably crawl back into their hiding spot to munch on it.
Breeding
Better food seems to spark the mood for crays, if you find them doing the do (they clamp on to eachother) don't worry about it, just don't spook them. You will eventually find the female lots of eggs on her underside. It is much like RCS. Do not remove the male, but you might want to rubber band his claws incase he shows aggression. In about a week the eggs hatch and the babies are clinging to the mothers swimmerets. My method is moving the mother to a grow out tank and gently move your fingers over the babies, this will cause the babies to let go of mom. once all the babies are off put mom back in the main tank. Expect 200 babies or more
Taking care of the babies
They need food on a constant basis, If not they will become canniballistic. In normal circumstances they kill eachother anyways. If you start with 200, you will usually end up with 100-150. I have started depositing the babies to my sump of my 120 gallon tank, This is an ideal location for baby crays because the sponge over the pump collects food for them to climb onto and eat.
My setup:
and a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EwrBxTLpGs
Final things: with each generation I notice two things: they become more docile and less aggressive, and they have a more blue or more white color.
The Basics
First you will need to aquire two crayfish, perferably 1 male and atleast 1 female. To tell that you simply need to flip the crayfish on its back and check.
Heres a great picture that I got from the site that helped me out way back when.
Housing
Your tank should have a large footprint, A 20 long works well. Having lots of hiding places is key, if theres just one cave the two crays will fight for it. You want to have many places, rocks, caves, pieces of pipe, anything that they can hide in will be great. If you catch crays out of a creek or something, they probably won't need a heater, but I have a had a heater with the wild crays I bought. The temperature range I have had crays live well in ranges from 64-84. If you buy a tropical cray then they will not have the same tolerances.
Water Parameters
Crays are very susceptable to sudden PH changes, but they tolerate a wide range. Treat them like fish, and they will thrive.
Feeding
Crays are scavengers, they eat anything they can get. Or catch for that matter. Do not keep small fish with crays, they will get snapped up eventually. I feed my crays flake food, jumbo shrimp, red shrimp, and brine shrimp flakes. They will eat whenever, just don't feed in excess. Drop a shrimp in for each cray, they will take it and probably crawl back into their hiding spot to munch on it.
Breeding
Better food seems to spark the mood for crays, if you find them doing the do (they clamp on to eachother) don't worry about it, just don't spook them. You will eventually find the female lots of eggs on her underside. It is much like RCS. Do not remove the male, but you might want to rubber band his claws incase he shows aggression. In about a week the eggs hatch and the babies are clinging to the mothers swimmerets. My method is moving the mother to a grow out tank and gently move your fingers over the babies, this will cause the babies to let go of mom. once all the babies are off put mom back in the main tank. Expect 200 babies or more
Taking care of the babies
They need food on a constant basis, If not they will become canniballistic. In normal circumstances they kill eachother anyways. If you start with 200, you will usually end up with 100-150. I have started depositing the babies to my sump of my 120 gallon tank, This is an ideal location for baby crays because the sponge over the pump collects food for them to climb onto and eat.
My setup:
and a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EwrBxTLpGs
Final things: with each generation I notice two things: they become more docile and less aggressive, and they have a more blue or more white color.
