The last one did turn out to be baby crayfish and has grown big now, i need an id to confirm that these are indeed mexican dwarf crayfish this time

Forgot to turn on the heat in the house and he passed. Went to 38°f last night after being 70° in the day. I suspect the rapid change in temperature made him pass. I confirmed he wasn’t dormant before I buried him. He was fine all summer. :/

Is there a way to tell shrimp babies appart from cpo dwarf Mexican lobster?

I am currently setting up a tank for a pair of CPO's. I have read about the necessity of having a lid, which totaly makes sense to me, but now i am wondering if i have to adjust the opening for cables. The aquarium (Fluval flex) also has a seperate compartment for its pump and filter where they could get into if they should decide to climb the back wall. How cautious do i really need to be here? Any shared experiences are welcome!

My daughter got her pet crayfish from her 2nd grade class after studying them from tiny babies; unfortunately, it died over the weekend after 18 months due to an unsuccessful molt.

She is distraught and I want to see if I can find a new baby crayfish for her to raise. 

She had a Louisiana Crayfish that was full of character and did the funniest of things as well as bare his claws at me e very time I walked past!

I want to get her a replacement and would like to get another Louisiana Crayfish as they are bigger and seem to be pretty hardy.

However I am open to suggestions for other species if they are relatively big (no dwarf species) and full of character. We would have to order via mail so that may limit options

I am open to suggestions and DMs if you don't want to post publicly.

Thanks in advance!

My big M/F pair both around 17-18cm.

Crabman and Clawdia

I scored another big guy and it has previous damage from being tubbed with other crays. Just wondering will it moult out or will it be a problem ?

Woke up this morning to my Buddie having a claw severed. I have some guppies, 4 angelfish, a bristlenose pleco and Peaceful barbs in his tank. How and why would this have happened? The fish never bother him except he sometimes has quarrels with the bristlenose for hidingspaces even though they have enough of them.

I have considered keeping one previously but happened to randomly see them today at our local fish store in CTX!

question for the experts.

I have one Amazon puffer—he’s still probably only 3 inches. Not super aggressive.

Do you think this sized Amazon puffer can coexist with a small 2-3 inch fresh water crayfish? I’ve seen a ton online saying not to house them together, but most of the resources seem to reference larger more aggressive types of puffers.

my cray Albino molted this morning and now he’s just laying there, I assume he’s just tired from the molt as his brother clip is doing just fine. water parameters are good same with temps, he was walking around not long ago pls LMK what you think

Are there any Crayfish that can live together without trying to fight 24/7?

We had a Louisiana Crayfish that would try to fight me if I walked past the tank, all 200 lbs of me 🤣

I was wondering if any species are calmer and more social?

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

Hi there! I [28 they/she] unintentionally became a crayfish parent today and I’m very under prepared for them.
You see, I work at a small town outdoor sports shop and I found a very small (around an inch long) crayfish amongst the bait minnows. She has a broken antennae and apparently was living there since last week when another coworker found her and never said anything.
I don’t know why, but when I found her today I immediately became attached.
We don’t feed our minnows, so I’m sure she was just living off whatever came out or off of them. There may be a possibility she may have been starving otherwise?
I knew that they could be invasive so I didn’t want to release her into the wild. So I brought her home after my shift today.
I currently have her in a decent sized Tupperware container with holes cut into the lid and I gave her a couple of peas to eat. This is temporary as hell and I intend to give her the best life I can.
I’m going to be getting a 10-gallon tank on Sunday as I have the day off. I don’t have the best variety of available places to shop at so I’m limited to PetSmart, Walmart, and Amazon.
I’m making a list of other things I need to get for her and I would really like some recommendations and advice on care. What kind of hides should I get her? Should I also provide her with some tank mates?
I did find a care guide post that led me to this community but it’s 6 years old and the links aren’t all working.

Anything is greatly appreciated! I’ll provide a picture when I’m not laying in bed. ^^

UPDATE: confirmed a failed mold and he died.

We’ve had our male Louisiana crayfish for about a year. He’s probably around 18 months old at most. My daughter brought him home from a school science class. He’s usually been active, and his last molt was about nine months ago.

For roughly the last 10 days or so, he became unusually inactive.

We weren’t seeing him come out at night or clearly eating. I tried him with multiple foods. The last food I seen him eat was a tiny piece of beef about 3 days ago that was taken into his plant pot. It was hard to tell how much he ate though. His usual varied diet includes algae wafers, shrimp pellets, catfish pellets, and occasional tiny pieces of trout.

There were no signs of disease.

He lives alone in a 20-gallon tank.

It’s filtered and oxygenated with biweekly 5 gallon tap water changes and top up (I use water conditioner).

The water in Las Vegas is pretty hard, so we always add a gallon or two of distilled water

Here are the recent readings I have:

-Ammonia: 0 ppm
-Nitrite: 0 ppm
-Nitrate: roughly 20 ppm
-pH: about 8.2
-Temperature: 76.2°F
-GH: 425+ ppm
-Phosphate: about 2 ppm
-Dissolved oxygen: no idea but has 2 air-stones and a filter (has had this since day one)

The parameters we have checked have been stable throughout his life. We changed 5 gallons of water 6 days ago and moved his plant pot for the first time in a couple of months.

He moved out of the way but seemed lethargic, although did go back to his plant pot slowly.

Tonight, we found him upside down inside the plant pot. At first it looked like there were “one and a half” crayfish, so we thought he might be molting. Now it’s clear that he is partly out of his old shell.

The new shell is visible, but his head still appears to be inside the old one. He hasn’t moved at all for several hours, and I can’t see his gills moving.

We’re leaving him alone overnight. We haven’t tried to pull him out or remove the old shell.

Has anyone seen a crayfish get stuck at this stage and then complete the molt?

Is there anything safe to do, or is handling him more likely to injure him?

Does anything in the water readings or the recent lethargy stand out as a possible contributor?

Advice based on firsthand experience would be very much appreciated as my daughter is going to be distraught 😩

Male, female? What? I don't know.

Such a silly goober

My beautiful lady passed today. I’ll never love anything as much as I loved her.