The Blue Crayfish

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Introduction

Blue crayfish is the same species as normal coloured crayfish. Sometimes they are called lobsters as well, because everybody knows what lobster is and crayfish is something unknown, but it in not the same. Lobsters have two claws where each is of different size, but crayfish have claws of the same size. The blue colour is caused by gene mutation just like albino form of any animal or human species. However, just like other artificial colour mutations, this blue colour causes that an animal with blue colour is eaten very quickly. It is like an animal which has a light panel with a title: I'm here, come and eat me. The blue colour can by different at various geographic locations. They can grow to the size about 15 cm in an aquarium.

Aquarium and origin

Crayfish lives in Australia in warm and freshwater waters. However, in home aquarium they can live in ordinary room temperatures, or even cooler waters from about 12 to 22°C. Bear in mind that the water has to be clean and well aerated, so that you need a good water filter and aerator. Crayfish prefer soft water much more than hard water which is not very suitable for them. Additionally, a bit acid water is much better than alkaline. The tank should be large and there should be places for hiding as well. They don´t need dry land, so normal kind of fish tank is satisfactory. You should keep only one crayfish species in one tank. They are very aggressive and they will try to eat everything what moves, or they will try nip fins of fish inside the tank.

Feeding

As I have mentioned above, crayfish will eat everything. They find their food at the bottom levels. Blue claw lobsters will eat death fishes, special food or they will hunt other fish. They even may eat vegetables or aquarium plants, so growing plants in such tank is not the best idea. You can find various foods which are suitable for Crayfishes in aquatic shops; These include special tablets for bottom-dwellers fish (catfish tablets for instance).

Sexing

The crayfish male has a red mark on it's claws, but the female doen´t have so. The red colour is very expressive on the blue crayfish' body. Crayfishes lay eggs and one female can lay from 10 up to 250 eggs at once. The eggs are stuck to the females' body (under her back part) where are swimming legs, also called pleopods. When the fry is born, they look very similar like their parents do, the only difference is that the fry is smaller. You don´t have to worry about their food because they eat almost everything like their parents, just in smaller size. The first day of their life is critical and not every specimen survives this period, and those who survive maybe first 14 days have a good chance to grow up and mature in general. Crayfish specimen gets it's colour only when it reaches maturity. Until that time they are grey. Their colours are required for breeding purpose only, so there is no need to get it sooner.

Important

When you're going to keep a crayfish, you have to be careful because it might not be legal to keep them at home in your country. For example Cherax Quadricarinatus is the only legal crayfish in the UK. It is because they can escape and extend diseases. But you should check it anyway, because I don´t know the legislation.

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