native blue crawdads?
#1 Guest_brynneth_*
Posted 21 December 2009 - 04:04 PM
he looks like exactly like an electric blue crayfish; deep deep blue color and similar body proportions. unfortunately i also discovered that my camera is quite broken. i will take some pictures as soon as i can find another camera to use, and post them here.
does anyone here have any tips for breeding these guys? i figure since theyre not californian natives i might as well take advantage of my good luck and fill my sixty gallon with blue crays. might even be able to sell the youngsters. also, is this a mutation or a species? one or two of them just look brown, and i am not sure if i should take them out before breeding.
thanks
#2 Guest_jblaylock_*
Posted 21 December 2009 - 04:10 PM
#3 Guest_brynneth_*
Posted 21 December 2009 - 04:14 PM
I once saw a crawfish here in Central KY that was blue. I thought maybe somebody release on of those electric blue crawdads from the pet store. I havn't seen one since so I'm betting that was the case. doesn't really help you, but I thought I'd share.
cool. i think its pretty funny that you can just find these guys in the US. i just recently sold one to a customer in the local fish store i work at for nearly 30 bucks.
Oh, and they seem to be more peaceful than the red crayfish i used to catch. i have a pretty big variance in size and even though they make a big fuss when they face off with each other, their numbers appear to be pretty stable.
Edited by brynneth, 21 December 2009 - 04:16 PM.
#4 Guest_CATfishTONY_*
Posted 21 December 2009 - 04:55 PM
most often in the tribs of the Little Miami River.
SKIPJACK said they were native and it is
just a color phase.
#5 Guest_Newt_*
Posted 21 December 2009 - 04:56 PM
#6 Guest_brynneth_*
Posted 21 December 2009 - 05:28 PM
The blue mutation shows up periodically in plenty of crayfish species. The commercial "blue lobsters" are usually blue morphs of the common Florida crayfish, Procambarus alleni. Blue morphs of the red swamp cray (P. clarkii) are also around in the trade. If that's the main crayfish found in your creek, that's probably what your blues are as well. Do they have the white knobs on the claws like typical P. clarkii?
i did not notice white knobs on the one i was looking at, but i already dumped it back in the tank. i will pull it out again in a few hours and also will find my boyfriends camera to get some pictures. i did notice that the non-colored youngsters did not particularly look like your average clarkii babies when i caught them, and like i said, they are much more peaceful than i am used to. i am leaning towards something other than clarkii but not sure yet. pictures to come as soon as possible.
they are not as brightly colored as the blue crays i see in the pictures online, but i suspect that has more to do with selective breeding than species.
#7 Guest_critterguy_*
Posted 26 January 2010 - 11:59 AM
I caught some of what were likely native crayfish in the shallow of Lake Tahoe and they varied from rusty brown, yellow and black, orange, and blue. Interesting stuff. Of course, any we tried taking home died rapidly in transit.
#8 Guest_gzeiger_*
Posted 26 January 2010 - 01:29 PM
#9 Guest_critterguy_*
Posted 26 January 2010 - 02:10 PM
Adult crayfish are best transported with only a shallow layer of water in the bottom of the bucket, maybe a quarter inch or less. They are very demanding of oxygen and will often asphyxiate in the stagnant water of a bucket. They are quite capable of breathing air though, so if you give them just enough water to keep their gills moist without submerging them I've found they travel well even in hot weather.
Does this apply even to crayfish taken from cold mountain streams? I did catch 2 signal crayfish a few years ago and they traveled well in a manner similar to that which you describe.
#10 Guest_gzeiger_*
Posted 27 January 2010 - 02:38 AM
#11 Guest_Dan Johnson_*
Posted 09 March 2010 - 10:50 AM
#12 Guest_jase_*
Posted 09 March 2010 - 11:03 AM
That's a pretty interesting observation, and I haven't heard of that before. I've seen crayfish get a bit more blue/green coloration after being held in an aquarium for a while (especially post-molt, I think), but I attributed it more to being transferred from ponds/lakes with a muddy bottom to clear water with gravel bottom.As someone who has been researching and keeping large numbers of crayfish for over three years, I have learned that crayfish have a strong tendency to turn blue when exposed to aquarium lights. There are also genetic blue crayfish, which will turn a more intense blue when maintained in these same conditions. The big question for me is how to keep them from turning blue. They won't when the light is shielded by a dense mat of duckweed at least. I'm experimenting with aquariums without lights, but the results aren't in yet.
Do you have the same type of light on all tanks, or a variety? I'm curious how blue you're talking -- photos?
#13 Guest_farmertodd_*
Posted 09 March 2010 - 12:13 PM
This can happen in many species, but is a rare condition in the wild, perhaps due to crazy blue individuals getting eaten preferentially due to their obviousness to predators.
If you search on "blue marmokrebs" on the Forum, you'll find some posts from the past where we were talking about this, and the implications of a parthenogenic species being able to have this mutation (I still can't fully get my mind around that). There should be a picture there as well.
Todd
#14 Guest_Newt_*
Posted 09 March 2010 - 12:18 PM
#15 Guest_farmertodd_*
Posted 09 March 2010 - 03:15 PM
Todd
Edited by farmertodd, 09 March 2010 - 03:16 PM.
#16 Guest_bumpylemon_*
Posted 09 March 2010 - 03:23 PM
#17 Guest_farmertodd_*
Posted 10 March 2010 - 05:00 PM
Blue_Marmokrebs_sm.jpg 140.17KB 1 downloads
Unfortunately, they all died when an air pump burned up. Boy, did that stink (in multiple ways).
Todd
#18 Guest_gerald_*
Posted 10 March 2010 - 05:42 PM
The blue color is the result of a mutation where exoskeleton pigments are lacking and the blue color of the oxygen carrying proteins in many crustaceans (called hemocyanin - some still have hemoglobin) is visible through the exoskeleton. The blueness is variable with the amount of exoskeleton pigments, so that a partially pigmentless animal will look slightly blue, the completely pigmentless will be SCREAMING blue. Todd
#19 Guest_nativeplanter_*
Posted 10 March 2010 - 08:15 PM
#20 Guest_farmertodd_*
Posted 10 March 2010 - 08:22 PM
Todd
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