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Crayfish

Started by Guest_nativecajun_* , Mar 05 2007 01:55 PM

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30 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_nativecajun_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 01:55 PM

Not a fish I know but I caught this today and do not recall ever seeing one like it. I am assuming it is a baby/young but I do not know. I measured it and from tip of nose to back of tail not including whiskers it measures one and one eighth inch. I was trying to find it on the net but found it extreemly hard to narrow down.

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#2 Guest_nativecajun_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 01:55 PM

see below

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Crawfish_005_web.jpg 32.34KB 9 downloads

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#3 Guest_Carl_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 02:25 PM

see below

It may be very hard to ID for sure at this size. Generally you need an adult male to key them out. At least with the key I have. That one certainly has some interesting markings maybe someone else will know it.

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#4 Guest_Slasher_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 02:29 PM

I have no idea what kind that is, but it's really neat looking. Were there anymore like this one in the area you caught them?

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#5 Guest_nativecajun_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 02:32 PM

I found this one on the web with this name attached to it. I put it side by side with the one I caught here. Cambarus Depressicambarus sphenoides

I was hopeing for a common name though. But maybe there is no common name for this one. Do these two look like they could be the same species? And does anyone know how large this species gets if you can ID it for me.

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#6 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 02:33 PM

what was the habitat like that it came from? It looks like a dwarf crayfish Cambarellus shufeldtii. I have 0 experience iding crays but I happen to have some of these from the convention last year and they only reach about 1.5 maybe 2" max and have been breeding quite readily in my tanks. I had 12 and now have about 40 and very few of those are the original 12. I think 5 of the originals are left. They seem to have 2 color forms and they interbreed readily and the young are a mix of each color form, it doesn't seem to be sex dependent either as I have both types of both sex. Just don't put them with sunfish and they do not seem to eat their young. I have them in several heavily planted 10's with Heterandria formosa as tank mates.

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#7 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 02:36 PM

I'll get some pics of both color types of the ones I have. honestly though they could just be something that looks similar because like I said I don't have experience with them.

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#8 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 02:51 PM

Without scale and a specimen in hand, it's hard to say... But if it's tiny, it really does look like one of the dwarf crayfishes.

Todd

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#9 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 03:30 PM

I'm pretty sure that is a Cambarus sphenoides. They are a pretty common crayfish in small to medium size streams in Tennessee. I collected quite a few of them in first through fourth order streams in the Obed River above Dale Hollow last spring. I saw alot in the Hiwassee River all last summer too (along with some awesome bright pink and blue ones). For a positive ID with keys for the area you really need a mature male and a better measurement would be the chelae length, which is from the snout to the right at the start of the tail, instead of the total length.

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#10 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 03:34 PM

Here is a C. sphenoides from last April. This was field identifed as C. sphenoides and verified by Carl Williams with TWRA.

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#11 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 04:57 PM

after looking at mine closer I don't think they are the same thing, similar markings on the one color form but they don't quite look the same. But like I said before I have 0 experience iding these guys so I could be wrong. I did snap some pics of mine so I'll post them up anyways.

I'll call the two color forms striped and non-striped just to make this simple. I only have 1 original female left and she's carrying eggs so I didn't want to mess with her but these are of a striped and non-striped male and a young tank raised non-striped female. The camera I have here does not have a good close up macro feature so they aren't the best (took them standing on a chair or across the room), I need to try to get some with my wife's camera because it does have a macro feature but she took it to work with her today.

The striped male...

the non-striped male...

the non-striped female...

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#12 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 05 March 2007 - 07:01 PM

If you look closely right below the claw joint (2nd overall segment on the claw) you see a small hook protuding out on the species in question and the species I provided. Presence/absence, shape, size, of this is often a distinguishing characteristing.

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#13 Guest_nativecajun_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 07:02 AM

what was the habitat like that it came from? It looks like a dwarf crayfish Cambarellus shufeldtii. I have 0 experience iding crays but I happen to have some of these from the convention last year and they only reach about 1.5 maybe 2" max and have been breeding quite readily in my tanks. I had 12 and now have about 40 and very few of those are the original 12. I think 5 of the originals are left. They seem to have 2 color forms and they interbreed readily and the young are a mix of each color form, it doesn't seem to be sex dependent either as I have both types of both sex. Just don't put them with sunfish and they do not seem to eat their young. I have them in several heavily planted 10's with Heterandria formosa as tank mates.

Clear water stream, very shallow and flat with gravel riffles. Beautiful for seineing darters. Small stream.

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#14 Guest_nativecajun_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 07:04 AM

I would really like to find out if this is a dwarf species. I may get into breeding these little critters. I must say I like the way crayfish act in captivity. Excavating little holes under rocks and piling them up on the outside. Would be great to raise a few. And I could keep them in a small tank if it is a dwarf. So if any of you that work in Universities know of this species please speak up.

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#15 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 08:20 AM

The onle crawfish I can ID is Procambarus clarkii, and thats because its dinner.

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#16 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 11:00 AM

I believe the dwarfs are a swamp dwelling species thats why I was asking the habitat that you found them in. At least the ones I started my population with were collected at the mingo basin swamp in MO at the convention last year. Can anyone else confirm that the dwarf crayfish Cambarellus shufeldtii is a swamp dweller? If this is completely true then yours is more likely the species Matt suggested and I think he knows what he's talking about more than I on this subject, especially in your that area.

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#17 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 11:24 AM

I believe the dwarfs are a swamp dwelling species thats why I was asking the habitat that you found them in. At least the ones I started my population with were collected at the mingo basin swamp in MO at the convention last year. Can anyone else confirm that the dwarf crayfish Cambarellus shufeldtii is a swamp dweller? If this is completely true then yours is more likely the species Matt suggested and I think he knows what he's talking about more than I on this subject, especially in your that area.

They look like one of the species I catch down here in the swamps regularly.

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#18 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 04:44 PM

They look like one of the species I catch down here in the swamps regularly.

This is what is stated for habitat for the dwarf crayfish on the crayfish page someone posted in another thread... "Swamps, ditches, sloughs, lakes, ponds, and sluggish streams. Burrows as water disappears from habitat" does not sound like the habitat you described at all, nativecajun. Their max length is 1-1.5". This is the range given "Mississippi drainage system of southern Illinois,Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana; in the Red River system in Louisiana and Texas; and in the Pascagoula and Pearl River systems in Mississippi. Introduced into Rapides, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes, Louisiana".

Dredcon may very well be finding them though in the swamps he is talking about. The type locality for their original description was near New Orleans and that website gives a common name of Cajun Dwarf Crayfish.

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#19 Guest_nativecajun_*

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Posted 06 March 2007 - 06:52 PM

This stream is very slow moving. Has detris in many spots. And that is where in the stream I catch them. In the rotting leaves. I caught another today. He was not much bigger than the first. About the measuring I think that is what I did. I did not include the teneciles. Nose to tip of tail. Sure looks like the same one astonomi ?? spelling posted. Is that one a dwarf ashtinomi ??