Got 3 Crayfish... I think....Need help quick!

[theamish]

OK all, need a quick bit of help here. I have a buddy who found these little crayfish(crawdad, crawfish or whatever), at least I think thats what they are. They look like little tiny lobsters, one is 2.5", one is 1.5" and the last is 1". I think they may be babies but I really have no idea.

I guess he found them and thought they were cool, got bored and decided he was gonna flush 'em, new I was building a vivarium and figured I was some sort of animal sanctuary.... long story short I saved them from the dreaded swirly!!

Question is, what the heck do I do with them? Truth be told I would like to keep them and stick them in a proper tank, maybe even let one roam my 75g viv that I'm working on when the time comes. But besides what I want I'm more interested in doing whats best for the crays! I do live near a river that
I could deposit them in because I think he found them in a pondish area.

Anyway, right now i seperated them cause they were looking pretty stressed in the little bucket he gave them to me in and i even put some small rock and a little piece of pvc in each so they could relax. But I need some long term advice.

[JohnEDove]

I use to breed them for the Pet & Restaurant Trade so I jusst happen to have a care sheet that should fill the bill hope it is not breaking any rules posting this. LOL Have to take off about 8000 characters I guess.

Crayfish Care Sheet
by John E Dove
Please Note
This care sheet is just intended as a starting point in your research on keeping Crayfish. It is not the end all and be all of informational sources. Almost weekly we are learning new things and experiencing unusual occurrences that seem to throw out the rules. It is suggested that you use this writing as a guide and continue do research the subject on your own to improve the care you provide your little friend.
Crayfish As Pets
Crayfish can make wonderful pets and require very little in the way of care provided you start off on the right foot. It is generally recommended that you do not house more than one crayfish in an enclosure with a few exceptions. The Australian Red Clawed Crayfish (Cherax
quadricarinatus) and the Louisiana Lobster (Procambarus Clarkii) are both species that are raised for commercial purposes and can generally be kept in a community environment with others of their own kind up to a point. Most species of Crayfish, like the ones you find in your local ponds and streams will not tolerate other Crayfish in close proximity and will fight for their territory resulting in the injury or death of one of the combatants. Fish, Snails, or live Aquatic Plants are also not a good idea in an aquarium with a Crayfish as they will end up being food for or will feed on the cray eventually.
Before You Get Your Crayfish
It is always wise to thoroughly research any new pet before you get it to ensure that you will be able to give it the good care it deserves. Plus, you should have everything ready and fully functioning before you purchase your new pet. This is no less true with Crayfish than with any other animal.
Housing
A ten gallon aquarium with a filter and a tight fitting top so as to prevent escape is great for one Crayfish. They are perhaps one of the best escape artists in the world. If they can reach anything they can use to get to the top of their enclosure they will climb out. Intake tubing for filters should be shortened to be several inches above the bottom and air tubing for aerators need to be cray proofed where they come out of the aquarium. Please note if a Crayfish can get hold of the edge of an aquarium they can crawl around the top looking for an opening. Another thing that I suppose should be mentioned is that crays can jump out of the water like a fish and out of the aquarium on occasion given the opportunity.
Substrate
As a substrate I recommend gravel with large rocks to create cave like hiding places and/or ornamental plastic plants. In my Crayfish aquariums I use large flat rocks to create a hill in the center of the aquarium they can use to get out of the water if it suits them. A hill may or may not be used to get out of the water but it can make an interesting addition to the landscape in the tank and offers some amusement for the observers of the crays cliff climbing abilities.
A heavily decorated aquarium can enable more that one Crayfish to be kept in an aquarium, though more than one in an aquarium is not a good idea. As mentioned earlier Crayfish are solitary, territorial creatures that often will not even get along with other crayfish if they see them and more than one in an aquarium can lead to injuries and death.
Water
I keep the water level in my Crayfish aquariums about an inch or two lower than the top of the visible glass using reverse osmosis water purchased from the grocery store.
Crayfish do best in water kept at 65 – 75 degrees Fahrenheit (18 – 24 Celsius). If your water temperatures should get higher than the recommended temps it is really not a problem unless they exceed the mid 80’s. Commercial raisers routinely keep their Crayfish at 82F/28C to speed up their metabolic rate which of course speeds up growth and aging.
Crayfish require a water ph of 7.2 – 8.4. A ph any lower than 7.0 is acidic and can actually leach the calcium out of their exoskeleton, any higher than 8.4 and it can become difficult for your cray to get enough oxygen.
Normal tap water is sometimes either neutral (7.0) or slightly acidic (lower than 7.0). To increase the ph in your aquarium there are a number of products available on the market but the method I use is less expensive. I save egg shells from my morning breakfast wash them in clear water, let them dry then run them in the microwave set on high for five minutes to kill any possible bacterial contaminants then crush them and add about a teaspoon to a ten gallon aquarium when the ph drops below 7.2. Egg shells slowly break down in water raising the ph. Egg shells will also be utilized by the crays to create their internal calcium stones that are used to form and harden their new exoskeleton after molting/shedding. Another method of ensuring your water maintains the proper ph is to decorate with sea shells which are of course calcium carbonate and will breakdown naturally in an aquatic setting & increase the ph of your water.
The water in your aquarium should be properly “cycled” prior to any Crayfish being introduced.
What is cycling?
To put it quite simply, it is establishing the proper balance of bacterial agents in your aquarium to handle the waste products and by products produced by this waste as it deteriorates in your aquarium.
How you cycle your aquarium
The only way I have ever cycled an aquarium is by setting it up to receive the crayfish and then operating it as though the Crayfish was already there, complete with feedings and weekly 10% water changes.
In order to determine when your tank is done cycling you will need Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test kits.
The first stage in this process will be a high reading of ammonia in the tank. The next stage will be when the ammonia levels drop and the nitrites rise. This is a good sign that the process is working. When both the ammonia & nitrites have disappeared and you have a low nitrate level, add your Crayfish. All of this can take a few months if left to natural occurrence.
This process can be greatly sped up with the use of a few rocks or pieces of wood from a local pond, stream or another well established aquarium. The bacteria that you are trying get growing in your aquarium live on the surface of aquatic debris so by transferring such items into a new aquarium you also transfer the bacteria.
I have read about a product on the market for establishing bacterial colonies in the aquarium that is reportedly better than the method mentioned above called “Bio Spira” which is produced by Marineland. While I cannot personally testify as to its efficiency, the source I read recommending this product is very knowledgeable and one that I would trust fully or I would not mention it.
Feeding Your Crayfish
Crayfish are opportunistic omnivores which means that they will eat almost anything they can get their pincers on. In the wild they feed on aquatic plants, algae, rotting vegetation that falls into the water, snails, fish, and decomposing mammals that die in or near the water.
In captivity the important thing is not to over feed which causes pollution in the aquarium.
Crayfish in the aquarium do well on most standard fish foods that sink. For baby crayfish I use fish food flakes made for Goldfish. For adult crays I use sinking shrimp pellets intended for general fish use.
The amount fed is quite small but you must keep in mind that the animal you are feeding is also quite small. For baby crays one large flake of food finely crushed twice a day is plenty. You do not have to worry about getting the particles exactly where the cray is setting since it will smell the food in the water and hunt it down. For adult Crayfish the same rule holds true, one pellet in the morning and one pellet in the evening is plenty and if you are using a large sized pellet one per day is enough.
If you attempt to keep more than one Crayfish in an aquarium you will need to be sure to drop meals in separate locations to reduce chance encounters.
You can also feed vegetative matter such as Water Lettuce, Water Hyacinth, Water Cress and Romaine lettuce but you will need to weigh vegetative matter down so it doesn't float to the surface out of the crays reach.
I have read some recommendations of feeding shrimp aquatic life forms to Crayfish but caution should be observed when doing so. Many times such foods can contain diseases that while not harmful to the host animal could prove fatal to your Crayfish. Any foods of aquatic origin should have been thoroughly cooked before introduction into your crays environment.
Molting
As Crayfish grow they shed their shell and grow a new hard shell this process is called molting. Molt can be a very stressful on the cray and they may exhibit signs like not eating or When they first molt they are soft, and very vulnerable to attack by other crayfish or fish. It can take a couple days for the new shell to fully harden. Juveniles can molt every week or so. Adults may only molt a couple times a year, and only under the right conditions. The empty shell should be left in the tank, where it will be consumed over the next few days to recover the lost minerals and help form the new shell.

[JohnEDove]

Here is the section removed from the above so it would post.

Breeding
Most North American species of Crayfish reach sexual maturity at about six months of age when they are around 3 inches (8cm) in length.
If you decide to breed your crayfish it is a good idea to set up and cycle an aquarium for the mother to stay in until the eggs hatch. A small aquarium is all that is needed as she will be basically inactive during this period. A good substrate for this hatching aquarium consists of a few layers of the net type of bags that onions or fruit come in. This substrate will allow a place for the hatchlings to conceal themselves from each other for their first two weeks of life. A hiding place where the mother can conceal herself and feel safe should also be provided in this enclosure.
In order to stimulate mating and reproduction it is necessary to raise water temperatures into the mid to upper 70’s Fahrenheit but not above 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28C). These warm temperatures must be maintained with little fluctuation for the female throughout the breeding and incubation period.
When the male and the female crayfish are ready to mate, the male will grab the pincers of the female and roll her on her back for mounting. Once in place, abdomen to abdomen, the male injects his sperm into the female and fertilize the eggs while they are still within the female.
In 10 – 20 days the female will release her tiny eggs and gather them up in the swimmerets under her tail where they will remain until they hatch.
Once the female lays her eggs she will hide to await the hatching. At this time, if you wish to have the babies survive, transfer the female to the incubation aquarium you previously prepared. To make this transfer you should gently herd the female into a container and move her in water to the birthing chamber where she will remain for about a month until the eggs hatch and she releases the young.
*DO NOT USE A NET FOR THIS TRANSFER AS YOU COULD DISLOGE THE EGGS IN THE PROCESS*
During this incubation period the female may remain in hiding and not even come out to eat but offer her food after she has settled down in her new enclosure just in case. If she does not come out to eat you may try feeding her a small amount once every other day in case she changes her mind. A female carrying eggs, that moves around, will usually keep her tail curled around the eggs as she moves.
Once the eggs have hatched, in about a month or so, the female will continue to carry them for a couple of days before releasing them. Once she does release them she may only release a few at a time but if you want to speed up the process at this point you can pick her up and gently swish her back and forth through the water to dislodge the babies. When the babies are all off the mother return her to her normal aquarium. She will want nothing more to do with her young at this point and may cannibalize them.
Raising the Babies
The young are not hard to raise provided you give them plenty of places to hide from each other and enough food. For the first two weeks of life the babies should be left in their birthing chamber where they harden and gain strength. During this period you should feed them fish food flakes, crumbled fine, two or three time per day. Be sure to scatter the flakes well to ensure that everyone gets fed.
After the second week you should sort the young into groups of twenty five and place them in plastic sweater boxes with 3 or 4 inches of water. Live aquatic plants like Water sprite (Ceratopteris), Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) or Java Moss make excellent cover at this time but will need to be continually replaced as they will be eaten by the young crays. Good alternatives to live plants include artificial replicas of the above, silk flowers or short pieces of PVC pipe. The important thing to remember at this point is to provide enough hiding places so that the young do not cannibalize each other.
Around 1 ½ to 2 months of age they will need to be separated again into groups of 10 or less depending on the size of the enclosures you are keeping them in.
If you have been careful to maintain water quality, kept the water temperatures between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (24 – 26C) and provided adequate cover and feed about 70% of your hatchlings should survive and reached about 1 ½ inches (4cm) in length, at this time the juveniles are ready to be placed in their own aquariums, given away or sold.
Health Issues
Protecting your Crayfish from diseases or parasites is best done by maintaining the proper water quality, feeding aquatic animal source foods only if they have been precooked, and providing as much of a stress free environment as is possible.
Parasites of Crayfish
Annelid Branchiobdellida Parasites on Crayfish
Annelid parasites most often appear in the form of tiny white leech like worms on the shell of the crayfish.
Some Annelids like Branchiobdella parasitica attach themselves to a crayfish and do no harm. Still other branchiobdellids do feed on the cray and can cause harm by providing wounds through which other health problems can enter the system.
Once a crayfish is infested with Annelids there is no way at present to effectively completely remove them. The best you can do is to remove the visible Annelids by gently scrubbing them off with a soft tooth brush under cool running water. While this will not eliminate the problem, due to the fact that they infest some areas you cannot scrub adequately this will have to be repeated periodically, it will help to control the intensity of the infestation.
Fluke infestations
These usually appear as cysts or flat or round white worms specifically attached to the jointed areas of the crays exoskeleton, most commonly between the plates of the tail.
Though these parasites feed on crayfish body fluids the greatest hazard they pose to your cray is allowing other pathogens to enter the system via the wounds they cause.
These parasites can be killed by soaking the crayfish in a salt water solution for a couple of hours but you will have to repeat the procedure in about 11 days then again in another 11 days to be sure to kill new flukes that have hatched.
Fungal Infections
Crayfish Plague
Though many North American Crayfish species seem to have limited immunity to this disease crays from other parts of the world are very susceptible and any exposure is fatal.
The only observable symptoms are possibly white musculature showing between the plates of the exoskeleton and at the final stages of this disease the crayfish will display an intense dislike of bright lights and loss of limb control.
There is no cure for this disease and any aquaria exposed should be thoroughly soaked & washed with a 10% bleach water solution and allowed to dry completely before reuse.
Saprolegniasis Fungus
This is one of those diseases that most often affect the Crayfish through the wounds inflicted by parasites, other crayfish and other sources though it can also affect the eggs of the female cray.
The observable symptoms of this disease would be a fungal growth around the site of a wound or on the eggs.
This problem most often occurs among crayfish that are being kept in poor quality water conditions.
There seems to be some evidence to indicate that salt water baths may destroy this disease.
Burn Spot Disease
This can best be recognized as reddish brown – black spots up to ½ an inch across on the shell of the crayfish.
Unfortunately as with many diseases of crayfish there is no cure
Bacterial Infections
Chitinolytic Bacterial Disease
This appears as pitted dark spots on the exoskeleton of the cray once it enters the musculature septicemia sets in leading to death.
There is no cure for this disease but it can be prevented by maintaining good water quality.
Nocardiosis Bacterial disease
This disease is only detectable by a close examination of the musculature between plates of the exoskeleton for nodules. The good news for North American owners is that this is primarily found in the UK. There is no cure.
Bacterial Septicaemia
There is no sign of this disease until it is to late then the crays will appear lethargic and their legs will be shakey.
Again poor water quality is responsible and there is no cure.
Protozoan Infections
Porcelin disease
There are no visible symptoms of this disease until it has progressed to the point where visible muscle tissue appears white then opaque. These physical symptoms appear at the final stages - loss of muscle function followed by death.

For detailed information on Crayfish diseases please visit the website of Brett F. Edgerton PhD entitled "Crayfish Diseases".
Here is the link to Dr. Edgerton's website: Brett Francis Edgerton - Crayfish disease

[Evilwezal]

I would just place them near the water in a stream or pond. Crayfish live just about every were from large lakes to road ditches. I get Crayfish in my frontyard after every rain or when I water my grass. they are terrestrial, they just need to keep there lungs damp to breath.

[Evilwezal]

Oh and I wouldnt place them in any of your vivariums that contain other animals. Crayfish will attack and eat frogs/snakes/newts easily.

[JohnEDove]

Actually "Terrestrial" Crayfish, a bit of a misnomer, only exist where the water table is high enough in the soil to allow them to sink burrows down so they can spend a great deal of their time below water in the ground.
That is why you see them on the surface after you water or a good rain.