# Pregnant/berried CPO (Mexican orange dwarf crayfish). Pictures.



## igor.kanshyn

Just some pictures.

I'm wondering why her eggs have different color.


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## ShrimpieLove

Very nice photos! She is really bright orange!


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## bettaforu

igor, some of the eggs will be viable and some won't...the ones that are unfertilized will eventually just drop off leaving the remaining ones to hatch.


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## igor.kanshyn

ShrimpieLove said:


> Very nice photos! She is really bright orange!


Thank you. She is.
A male a little smaller, but even more bright. He has less visible stripes.


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## igor.kanshyn

bettaforu said:


> igor, some of the eggs will be viable and some won't...the ones that are unfertilized will eventually just drop off leaving the remaining ones to hatch.


Thank you Anna,
I assume that white eggs are empty ones.


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## igor.kanshyn

Baby crayfish have fallen from the mother today. 
They are cute, look like little orange shrimps


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## brapbrapboom

igor.kanshyn said:


> Baby crayfish have fallen from the mother today.
> They are cute, look like little orange shrimps


Congrats Igor!!


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## novice

Congrats igor - another feather to your inverts cap - saw the video - looking great - what pH and temp you keeping them at?


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## igor.kanshyn

novice said:


> Congrats igor - another feather to your inverts cap - saw the video - looking great - what pH and temp you keeping them at?


Thank you!

It's just a tap water and no heater.
pH is 7.6 and temperature is 21-24C for now.


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## ikif

congrats Igor, wondering if u will sell some to me??


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## igor.kanshyn

Thank you.

Sure, I will sell them, I don't need an army of crayfish here 

However it will be not now. They are too small. And I'm not sure that they are hardy enough. 

Let me grow them at least for a month, then we will see.


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## ikif

oh yeah.. i have tank ready and i'll look forward to hear from you!


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## igor.kanshyn

Ok 

I keep them in a 1.2 liter plastic box now. As they are small, they have plenty of space for each creature.
I'm thinking about what neocaridina shrimps will have to share a tank with them soon


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## Bwhiskered

Congratulations Igor. I may be interested in some myself when they are ready to sell. The yellow shrimp that I got from you are dropping babies like crazy.


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## igor.kanshyn

Cool, thank you.

I found several dead CPO babies today. I hope they just were week and it's not my water quality problems.


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## bettaforu

Igor, this will happen with baby CPO's They are cannibalistic in nature and only the strongest of them will survive. You will need to keep them separate from your shrimps for now as they will eat anything they can find (including baby shrimps)


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## igor.kanshyn

I keep them separated in that external box. And I've added some small rocks that makes dozens of places where they can hide.
All dead shrimps were not eaten, they just dead ... no signs of violence 

Actually, I haven't seen them fighting yet. Sometimes they come close to each other and then one of them jumps back. There is no chasing. 

Some deaths can be caused by low water quality, lack of calcium, or ... some of them just should die. 
I read that survival rate among crayfish babies were always low.


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## igor.kanshyn

So, It was not so good as I expected.

I have only two CPO babies left and they like in one of my shrimp tanks.
All the other died only by one in a first week. I don't see what was wrong there, but it was something wring for sure.

The second sad part of this store, that I just missed whole bunch of my second babies. I had pregnant CPO and it had babies hanging on her a week ago. It was no eggs neither babies yesterday. 
Ok, let's wait more ...


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## bettaforu

Sorry to hear about your losses. CPO's are extremely hard to breed successfully, not as easy as the other crayfish.

You may have babies in your tank that the mother released!
I just found 2 juveniles in my 30 gallon....I had a female with eggs, then one day no eggs...thought she just dropped them...which she did in my tank and now these are the ones that have survived! 

More than likely you will see a few of them in a couple of months, just don't disturb the tank...they will hide until they are big enough to fight off other predators, including their own siblings/parents.


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## Pamelajo

So sorry to hear about the first batch!


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## igor.kanshyn

bettaforu said:


> Sorry to hear about your losses. CPO's are extremely hard to breed successfully, not as easy as the other crayfish.
> 
> You may have babies in your tank that the mother released!
> I just found 2 juveniles in my 30 gallon....I had a female with eggs, then one day no eggs...thought she just dropped them...which she did in my tank and now these are the ones that have survived!
> 
> More than likely you will see a few of them in a couple of months, just don't disturb the tank...they will hide until they are big enough to fight off other predators, including their own siblings/parents.


I still hope, that some of all drop bunch can survive. But it's a small hope


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## igor.kanshyn

*Grown up babies, video*

Look at them, they are bigger and orange 
Video: One-week-old Mexican Dwarf Orange Crayfish (CPO) babies


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## bettaforu

Nice! what are you feeding them?


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## Canadiancray

The hardest part keeping ANY crayfish babies alive is preventing them from cannibalising each other. You can actually watch it happen. When they molt they are defenceless and are mobbed by the other babies.

I find bio balls, Lego and java moss make really good hiding spots. CPOs seem to do even better if you cover the bottom of the tank in leaves.


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## Greg_o

Awesome yet another use for Lego!


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## igor.kanshyn

bettaforu said:


> Nice! what are you feeding them?


Regarding babies I keep in boxes I have the following schedule:
I vacuum bottom of their boxes every day and change 80% of water.
Then I feed them with baby fish food. It's a powder and I just put some into the water
and, on the other day, I feed them with spirulina flakes. I crushed in into a powder and also add in into the water.

On the next day I remove leftovers.

Very simple, but quite time consuming


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## igor.kanshyn

Canadiancray said:


> The hardest part keeping ANY crayfish babies alive is preventing them from cannibalising each other. You can actually watch it happen. When they molt they are defenceless and are mobbed by the other babies.
> 
> I find bio balls, Lego and java moss make really good hiding spots. CPOs seem to do even better if you cover the bottom of the tank in leaves.


It's good tips. Thank you very much.
I have two 'sick' babies who molted with problems. They can't really walk now. I keep them separately.

I saw lots on baby crays skins and I lost only one from 15 crays currently. So, they were not so predatory to each other.
I use 1cm-size rocks to make a 'stone jungle' on the bottom. This is my way to build hiding places 
It works fine now when they are small. But I don't know what will I do once they grow


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## igor.kanshyn

*they are growing ...*

Just letting you know that babies who live in a plastic box become a little bigger, but they are still transparent

Babies from a satellite breeding box are bigger and have slightly orange color.

But babies from Sulawesi aquarium in 2 times bigger than babies from the first plastic box and have orange stripes.
The difference in size is huge!


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## igor.kanshyn

*Video. Baby cray and a baby snail *

Video: Mexican Orange dwarf crayfish baby and baby orange tylomenia snail



Mexican Orange dwarf crayfish (CPO) baby and a baby orange tylomenia snail. They live in my 20g Sulawesi aquarium now.
I guess this crayfish is 3-week old.


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## igor.kanshyn

*I'm having babies again!*

My female CPO is *giving birth right now*. She is slowly shaking them off her body.


It's a photo of a baby from the previous bunch.


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