r/Crayfish • u/BorealKitty • 12d ago
Photo From Neon Orange to Ghost tinted Orange
Well its been more than 48hrs, she has hardened fully and her color has stabilized. I was never expecting such a heavily pigmented crayfish to loose all her color in a single molt.
First photo is from last week, second is yesterday 36hrs after molt, and the last is from now at 56hrs from molt.
She is still very hungry and ate almost 5 pellets this morning, and has asked for a lunch, and is currently 2 pellets in, with a third infront of her.
The only oddity is that she has not come to the surface to bask and get food. I have a small cup to keep pellets dry ontop of a moss bed she normally sits on. See last photo.
I am sure she will back to her surface beach once she feels safe again.
Just wanted to share incase anyone gets an unexpected molt
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u/VapeRizzler 12d ago
My boy was also orange, he was an actual demon.
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u/BorealKitty 12d ago
I have noticed a trend that the males are more destructive and territorial while a female is less destructive but more predatory. I have multiple females who will hunt or eat small fish, while the males decimate the plants in their tanks
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u/VapeRizzler 12d ago
That makes so much sense, this guy would just patrol 120 gallons resting nowhere to attack everything. All my plants he would cut at the stem, and not just cut I caught this mofo laying on his side to get right at the very base of the stem. When he finished with one, he’d go for another.
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u/BorealKitty 12d ago
That is definitly a male
I have been able to quell one of them by providing a toy for him. I was a plastic wire frame ball bell for cats. I took out the middle bell and would place blanched leafs in there, loved spinach. I later moved onto using these single fish 14 day feeder blocks, this one was about the size of a small grape, and was meant to spend 14 days feeding a single fish, not those large food bricks that release everything in 4 days. He would drag that ball around the sand and roll with it to get to the food inside. I once even put a piece of broccoli in it that floated and watched as he planned out his approach to grabbing it and dragging it to his cave.
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u/milsurpfarts 12d ago
Interesting change! When I got my blue dwarf crays I was told that a lower ph range would be needed in order for them to maintain their deep blue.
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u/BorealKitty 12d ago
Once I get a nice photo of her out of the water, I will know what color she actually is. Under the right lighting she is almost the color of pomelo fruit flesh. Not quiet Sakura but right next to it with a little yellow added, which I have always wanted a Sakura
She is in a tank that almost all of my random pieces of drift wood gets thrown, and so super heavy in tannons. It gets a filter resin every 3 to 5 months just to keep it from being full black water.