# Blue Dwarf Crays mated today!



## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Finally my new blue dwarf crayfish mated today. These are very rare, as mostly they come in brown with stripes. The ones I purchased carry the rare blue gene, and I am hoping the offspring will be blue as well. Both male and female are blue in color.

Here is a pic of a blue dwarf cray. This is an adult, and shows the blue coloration and marbling. My youngsters have the same marbling, but are still a paler blue. The blue hue deepens as they mature.










These grow to only 1 inch and are very peaceful, currently living in my cherry tank  Found them mating this am, so now have to wait to see if the eggs will be fertilized ones. Sometimes first time mommas lose the eggs because of stress from the mating procedure, so keeping fingers crossed.

These crays are similar to the orange CPO but are not the same species!

They are great for shrimp tanks too.


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## Alexpatrascu (Jun 13, 2010)

Congratz Anna.

And you should be ashamed.....busting in on your crays when they're mating in the early hours of the morning.....don't you know how to knock ?!?!? 

So these grow smaller than CPOs or the same ?!?

What species are they ?!?


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

These are about the same size...1 -1 1/2 inchs but no more than that.

My pair are young so not quite full grown yet, but they are already 1 inch.

These are Cambarellus Shufeldti 

Hey I thought it was eating her  Then I noticed they were on top of one another, and figured out what was going on, so I quietly left them alone....when I returned about 1/2 hour later they were apart and she had taken off to hide.


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## Alexpatrascu (Jun 13, 2010)

bettaforu said:


> ....when I returned about 1/2 hour later they were apart and she had taken off to hide.


She was prolly ashamed that you've seen her like that !!!!

I hear they loose their color as they get older.....I guess we'll have to wait and see how yours are gonna turn out.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

very cool ive got 3 orange ones but i would love to have some of these guys, you wouldnt happen to be starting a breeding program would you?


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Yes I am breeding these, as I wanted to get another type of small crayfish that could live in the shrimp tanks and these are sooo passive they are just cute as all heck. Even saw one back away from a Cherry shrimp!

Won't know for a little while yet whether or not the female is carrying eggs, but will keep ya all posted. We can all be on Maternity watch together


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Yay...female is berried!


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## arktixan (Mar 30, 2010)

That's totally awesome, I am tempted to put one in my tank


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

So just thought I would update on my crays. It looks like the first Blue female may have lost her eggs (that does happen with first time moms) 

However while I was searching for the male to put him back in with her, low and behold, I find that the other female is also berried. 

She is a much darker blue than the first one, and she's got a lot of eggs on her  Guess the male was very busy, and I only saw the one dance....there was 2! 

She is now in her own tank, where she can wander around without having to hide from the others.

Also in the big pond tank (actually a 36 x 14 x 7 plastic container that goes under your bed) I use it for the crays, its shallow and I can put lots of hiding spots (rocks, driftwood, caves) in it for them to hide. I found another orange dwarf crayfish that is almost ready to birth. I can see the eyes on the babies 

Ive moved her to a small tank by herself so she can have the babies in peace.

Wow lots of crayfish babies coming!


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

Do dwarf crays snip/plants? They can live with shrimps? 
My Alleni mated but the female never became "berried". your crays look SO NICE


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Yes they live side by side with all of my shrimps, including crystals. They don't touch them and I have never seen one eat any plants! The shrimps often ride around on the heads of these crays, hitching a ride so to speak.

I have actually seen a tug of war go on between a tiny shrimp and a cray over a piece of food, and the cray LOST! 

I cannot say enough about having these guys in a tank they are soooo entertaining, and will actually come to the front and beg you for food!


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## arktixan (Mar 30, 2010)

I still cannot decide if I want, a Orange/Blue  decisions... decisions...


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## Alexpatrascu (Jun 13, 2010)

arktixan said:


> I still cannot decide if I want, a Orange/Blue  decisions... decisions...


Get both...decision taken  !!!!


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

wow never knew they could co-exist with shrimps , i should start thinking about going into crays again lol. thanks for the info!


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Hah...baby Orange ones born yesterday! I went to turn on the lights this am and Mamma was out and about! I took a look at her underneath and NO eggs. 

So I searched the tank, and there they were exploring the area. So far I have seen 4 of them, but there is obviously more that I didn't catch.


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## Alexpatrascu (Jun 13, 2010)

Congratz Anna, mine were born two days ago....funny looking guys....


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Congrats on your babies too! Aren't they just the cutest though! Are yours already orange? I can see that mine are, which is really cool. I have had some in the past that were born almost white and it took 4 weeks for them to change to orange....however this batch and my last were orange from the start.

Mamma is a nice peachy color but Daddy is deep Tangerine color.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

how can you tell sexes i have 2 orange guys 1 is a light peachy colored the other is dark reddish orange. The darker one is slightly aggressive, it wont attack for no reason but expects my cherries and other cray to give up food and/or get out of its way.


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## Alexpatrascu (Jun 13, 2010)

*Here* you go Mark !!!

Anna, mine are white-ish...I guess I'll have to wait a bit till they get their color...


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

I just moved 96 dwarf orange crays from the parents tank to a larger grow out tank. They were all about a half an inch or a bit larger. In another month they should be ready for sale. They are my wife Janet's pets as she is interested in invertebrates and has been doing an excellent job looking after them.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Hey Charlie are those from the original 6 you got from me? Wow that's a heck of an acheivement! Good on yah


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

Bwhiskered said:


> I just moved 96 dwarf orange crays from the parents tank to a larger grow out tank. They were all about a half an inch or a bit larger. In another month they should be ready for sale. They are my wife Janet's pets as she is interested in invertebrates and has been doing an excellent job looking after them.


very impressive what are you going to be asking for them?


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Im soooo excited!! I was sitting at my computer just now and out of the corner of my eye I see something move in the small 2.5 gallon tank that the first Blue Cray female was in (the one I thought lost all her eggs)

At first I thought it was a pond snail just dropping down, but then got out the magnifier and took a closer look.

WoooeeeH I see 2 dark blue cray babies! I think there is more of them, but they are very very small and hard to see. So I guess she did hatch the babies she had on her and they have been just living off whatever they could find in the tank.

I left it filtered as I thought OK I can use it again for another cray but my sixth sense must have been working and I just KNEW there might be babies in there and it was only a matter of time before they came out. I was right!

Now to try to raise them


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

bettaforu said:


> Hey Charlie are those from the original 6 you got from me? Wow that's a heck of an acheivement! Good on yah


I have never bought any from you. These are from the 2 pairs that I bought at the Menagerie in April.


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

mrobson said:


> very impressive what are you going to be asking for them?


I haven't given it much thought just yet as 99% of everything I raise go to my dealer customers.


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

I don't think I can consider mine as much as an accomplishment to you guys but upon further inspection today, i found out that my marble crayfish is berried!  finally berried for the first time after i got her!


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Sorry Charlie, thought you were the other guy that came and bought 6 of my Orange dwarfs last year.

On a good note....1st Blue Mamma has at least 10 babies surviving in the one tank.

Yesterday I noticed the 2nd Blue Mamma had molted and thought OH NO...no babies! So I caught her and put her back in the big tank with the male.

Went to look this am to see if anything was alive in the tank before emptying it and cleaning it out ready for the next one, and WOW she birthed the babies and then molted.

Counted at least 15 of the little guys crawling all over the substrate, so topped up with nice clean water, added a filter and some mossy plants for them to hide in and gave them some meaty food (dead squished pond snail)

So keeping fingers crossed these make it....will keep ya all updated.


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

I had dwarf blue crays several years ago. I raised over 100 but most turned out brown and mainly males. I hope you have a strain that breeds true blue as the brown ones are rather drab.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

So far they are looking blue, and growing good. The breeder I purchased them from, bred for the blue coloration, and the adults I bought all carry the Blue gene, but we will have to wait a bit more to see how they mature.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

*Some pics of the babies*

I managed to grab a couple of pics of the cray babies. Here is one showing my Orange CPO baby next to a couple of blue dwarf babies. These blues tend to be a bit smaller than the CPOs...so adult size is about 1 inch whereas the CPO can reach 1 1/2 inches. You can see the size difference in the orange baby who is 10 days older than these blues.










and another one showing the color of the babies including the one on the glass. My breeder told me that the color of the babies is the color they will be as adults, so these are all definitely going to be BLUE!


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Update:

OK baby Blue Shufeldti Crays are ready for new homes! They are just under 1 inch right now and will continue to grow to 1 inch maybe a little more but they are smaller in size than CPO's (the orange ones) and definitely less aggressive. They are all happily living in a 5 gallon tank right now with NO deaths, so would be fine in a bigger tank.

Price is $25 each or 2 for $40

I can try to sex them, but won't guarantee it because they are still so small its hard for me to see.

I am going to be out in Markham on Saturday at Kennedy Rd/Unionville Gate just down the street from Frank's aquarium on the same side (its the Shell gas station next to the Honda dealership)

I am delivering Bettas there so can bring some of these if anyone wants any.

Otherwise they will go on Aquabid and Kijiji/Pricenetwork etc.


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## Fishnut80 (Jul 21, 2011)

*Dwarf Crays*

I just signed on to this forum...what a great thread!

I have one of the dwarf Mexican crays...the little orange ones. It's in it's own tank because I was under the impression that it was just like the larger cousins, only miniature. If I've got the same species as others here, I've been misinformed!

This isn't a pic of my crays specifically. I found this on-line, but mine is identical. I just want to clarify that these guys are fish friendly because that would be great! I absolutely love these mini crays!


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Hi absolutely safe to keep with fish. Mine all live in a tank with shrimps all around them. They are NOT like the bigger crays...although dwarf crays will try to fight over territory with one another, they don't eat plants or fish unless they are already dead...sometimes they won't even eat those either 

My shrimps ride around on top of the crays heads....piggy backing it across the tank. Crays all swim backwards, whereas fish and shrimps can swim any way, so the cray can't go forward to attack anything....fish/shrimps figure that out real fast!


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Hey these crays are multiplying like crazy....they may be small but it hasn't stopped a couple of the females getting berried! 

I found 2 of them this am when I was pulling a couple out for a customer!

Also my Female CPO is berried too, found her when we went fishing in the plant tank for a male....pulled her out and woohoo...babies due soon.

She's in the breeder box now safe and sound until the babies are hatched.

Sold her 2 remaining babies from the last batch today along with 2 of the blue morph shufeldti's.

If the remaining blue shufeldti's are not sold before then, they will be sold at the Hamilton Auction in Waterdown on Oct 2nd (Sunday) Need room for the new litters


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