# Is my Mexican crayfish okay?



## htjunkie (Jul 20, 2012)

About 2 weeks ago I've pulled my plastic/silk plants out the tank and replaced with real plants:

Bacopa Caroliniana
Egeria Densa
Didiplis Diandra

I had some fake Egeria before but now with real plants, my crayfish seems to be a bit strange. For about a week, he was overly active by jumping in the tank. Now he's hiding behind the driftwood. I know the atmosphere is different now with different plants, but hiding spots for him are about the same as before. I usually drop some shrimp pellets down for him through a tong, now he's not really interested in any food and it has been for few days now that I haven't seen him eating with my eyes, I hope he's doing okay?

What can I do? Should I be worried? Thanks for your suggestions.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

can u post a picture


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## htjunkie (Jul 20, 2012)

Here's what the tank looks like:









And here's some pic of him but it's very hard to get a clean shot since he's hiding:


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

crays hide a lot, I haven't seen mine in days, but I did see him. so I know he's in there. 

Just don't overfeed him, he will pick off the driftwood and plants for biofilm to eat. They prefer algae wafers, more so than shrimp food. I feed half of one every 2 days. I taught mine to come to a clay saucer in the front of the tank to get fed, that way I could check on it.

When I saw him I deliberately held the algae wafer in front of him until he followed it to the saucer then I put it down, he soon learned I was his food source and when he saw me he would stand up on his tail with claws up for the wafer


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

This is probably fine. They are not eating a lot and it's hard to attract them by food. 

If your crayfish just molted recently, it will hide more. Have seen a shell somewhere?

Are you sure that it's 'he'?


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## htjunkie (Jul 20, 2012)

Good question, I don't know if my cray is male or female, assuming he's male. How can I tell?

He molted about 2 weeks ago, unfortunately not too long after, one time he was climbing up the filter intake and one claw got caught and it broke off, ouch!

It took me forever to find that claw, and I thought he got into a fight but couldn't really figure out what he would be fighting with, as he's the only one in the tank.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

htjunkie said:


> Good question, I don't know if my cray is male or female, assuming he's male. How can I tell?
> 
> He molted about 2 weeks ago, unfortunately not too long after, one time he was climbing up the filter intake and one claw got caught and it broke off, ouch!
> 
> It took me forever to find that claw, and I thought he got into a fight but couldn't really figure out what he would be fighting with, as he's the only one in the tank.


You can look at it from the bottom and find that out using the following picture: 









Usually females hide more and males are more playing explorers and walking along the tank.

I also had a problem with lots claw, my female was sitting in a breeding box and her claw stuck in a gap in a plastic sheet. Unfortunately, claw will not regrow


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