# Video. Mexican dwarf orange crayfish is giving birth



## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Mexican dwarf orange crayfish (Cambarellus patzcuarensis var. orange) is giving birth to her CPO babies.

The babies are hatched from eggs in about a week ago. They could not walk right after hatch so they has been just hanging on their mother. Now they are ready to live by their own. You can see on the video how they are crawling on mother swimmerets.

She is shaking her abdomen trying let babies out. This 'birth' process takes about 1.5 day.

Look at the video of 'birth' process.


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## laurahmm (Apr 1, 2010)

Awesome Igor. Your camera is so nice and clear as well. Are those the babies that I saw at your house somewhat grown up?


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

laurahmm said:


> Awesome Igor. Your camera is so nice and clear as well. Are those the babies that I saw at your house somewhat grown up?


Thank you.

They are growing, but that are still very small.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

*new born babies*

I just moved 30 babies from the breeding box into a bucket with crushed corals and rocks. The bucket will be their temporarily home 

Does anyone have a good idea about some objects that can be good hiding places for little crays.

I guess I saw small empty shells in Dollarama. I might need to visit our local store.


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## Canadiancray (Apr 27, 2006)

When I was heavily breeding crayfish I always used mesh pot scrubbers.










You cut the knot in the middle and completely unravel the scrubber into a longer tube. I would then pack a 10 or 15 gallon tank with them. It gives the babies a lot of places to hold onto and hide when molting. I would also use mesh laundry bags.

With my crays from Papua New Guinea I would seperate the babies into beanie baby containers. Those were much harder to breed though and I didn't want to take any chances.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Thank you Canadiancray. It's a good idea!

I've got some snail shells that my family use for various crafts. The shells are good enough for now


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