Malta Aquarist Society

Today while working on my fishroom insulation, I noticed some strange movements in a pail containing a female Procambarus fallax. The crayfish aren't in the best conditions and I don't remember when I did the last water change (its a shame of me) I peeped in this pail and saw that the females was carrying some young ones and others were already venturing away from her. I bought these crayfish (two females, which aren't in the same container) more then 4 months ago. As I didn't have a male I haven't even set them up for breeding. But to my astonishment I found these small ones. There are about 15 of them.

I will post photos later on. 

Hi Jonantan

.That sounds great. I have never kept any of these crayfish. I guess then they must have had eggs already which were fertilised before you bought them   I am looking foward to seeing the photos of the young ones.  What do you feed them, and i guess they are in normal room temparture as regards to water.

 Frank

 Yes they are in room temperature of around 21 deg and I feed them Shrimp sticks from Tropical. Next week I 'll take some photos because I wasn't prepared for this and these last days was very busy.

 Will you have to remove them from the mother and split them up. Would the big ones eat the smaller ones?

 Many of them are still attached to their mother, while I separated the others to other containers. When I had P.alleni the bigger ones ate the smaller ones, but now I will take care of that by having more containers since they'll grow a bit.

 It is always nice to see something not so common in our hobby Giann. Please do keep us updated and thanks for sharing. Awaiting the photos you promised !!!!

martin

 Here are the photos I promised.....

 The female carrying eggs - these crayfish don't have a nice colour compared to other species....

and here are the young ones...

 compared to a granule

 Thanks Giann for sharing. It seems she was carrying around 20 - 30 eggs. How many baby shrimps did she actually have ??. do you feed them the normal pellet food like the grown ups as soon as they hatch or some kind of baby food like we do with fish fry Giann ????

martin

 I put some java moss with them and feed them the pellets I give to the larger crayfish. From this batch I have around 15 of them because not all of them hatch.

In the meantime I bought 2 other females of the same species, one carrying eggs and the other carrying fry. Luck on my side with this species :)

Lovely pics. Jon. Compaired to the granule, they look like a fully grown Cherry Shrimp.