i have a question that i think i know the answer to, but i'll ask anyway.
can crawfish grow in size (externally) without moulting?
because my crawfish heavily fortified his cave with gravel, and i didn't see him for a few days, and i just recently saw him and i swear he looks a little bit bigger, mainly his claws, but i do not know if he moulted. it doesn't look like he moulted, he doesn't look soft or anything.
also, how often do they moult?
Crawfish Growing Rate
Started by
Guest_dsaavedra_*
, Feb 22 2009 06:50 PM
2 replies to this topic
#2
Michael Wolfe
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- Board of Directors
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- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 23 February 2009 - 12:55 PM
i have a question that i think i know the answer to, but i'll ask anyway.
can crawfish grow in size (externally) without moulting?
because my crawfish heavily fortified his cave with gravel, and i didn't see him for a few days, and i just recently saw him and i swear he looks a little bit bigger, mainly his claws, but i do not know if he moulted. it doesn't look like he moulted, he doesn't look soft or anything.
also, how often do they moult?
No, the exoskeleton is fixed in size (at least once it hardend after a molt) so they cannot grow without molting.
Frequency of molt is related to growth rate.... growth rate is related to food intake... more food, more molting (assuming of course that the food is of a healthy variety and has all of the appropriate building blocks for the next molt)... as far as I know there is no set molting time period.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#3
Guest_gzeiger_*
Guest_gzeiger_*
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- Guests
Posted 23 February 2009 - 03:51 PM
They harden quickly after molting, and in any case don't look visibly soft. They generally eat the cast-off exoskeleton, so there may not be any evidence of the event left besides your memory of his old size.
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