Blue Cray molting

[danger_chicken]

If you have nothing better to do for 3 min here's a marble cray molting. I've kept these for nearly 3 years and never caught one molting. I saw here laying on her side and thought she was dying at first. I have 3 tanks with these guys, in one of the tanks when the 3" full grown crays molt they get attack by the 1-1.5" juvies; fortunately this girl was not in that tank and no one bothered her. In the past few months I've had to feed out half a dozen of my full grown breeders after witnessing the juvies cornering them and slowing picking them apart. Its brutal, at least with the big fish it's quick.

Over the past few months I was trying to do an experiment with making their colors change but the best I could come up with is feed them lots of sprialina to make them turn blue. I've gotten them to turn red, brown and green in the past but not under controlled instances so I don't know what food caused it. This tank was being feed Ken's Invert food with calcuim (I'm out and can't remember the exact name). I think our own Invert Rachel had something to do with creating that food but I'm not 100% sure.

HD in full screen

[YT]M5RHXjfjbnA[/YT]

 

[minifoot77]

nice catch mike

 

[RIFT_LAKES_RULE]

That's really cool Mike, never seen anything like that.

 

[MonteSS]

Very cool.

...Bill

 

[msjinkzd]

shrimp are very similar in how they molt except they stay "standing" and fold into a tight "C" formation, then POOF.

And yes, i was responsible for ken making that food available from a few years ago.

 

[minifoot77]

whats the food labeled under on kens site i was looking for it...

 

[Tony]

That's really cool Mike. Certainly never seen that before.

How long does it take for their shell to harden? A few hours or are we talking a day?

 

[YSS]

That's cool. So, you can't keep these guys with fish in the tank? I have thought about keeping cray fish in my tank, but what stopped me was the possibility of cray fish eating my small fish not small fish eating the cray while molting. How ironic.

 

[verbal]

I have had success with endlers and crayfish(marmokreb and blue lobster). I think there may be some endlers losses, but they repopulate quickly enough.

 

[danger_chicken]

whats the food labeled under on kens site i was looking for it...

http://www.kensfish.com/kenssticks.html
KENS PREMIUM VEGETABLE STICKS WITH CALCIUM: NEW NOW AVAILABLE!

FORMULATED USING A WIDE VARIETY OF VEGETABLES, INCLUDING ONLY THE BEST KELP! EXCELLENT FOR SHRIMP, SNAILS AND OTHER INVERTS THAT REQUIRE A HIGH LEVEL OF CALCIUM IN THERE DIET. THIS CONTAINS A 20% CALCIUM LEVEL.

INGREDIENTS: MIXTURE OF PLANTS AND VEGETABLES INCLUDING: SEAWEED, SPIRULINA, CARROTS, SQUASH, SPINACH. VEGETABLE OILS, SOY MEAL, YEAST, WHEAT FLOUR, CALCIUM, VITAMIN & MINERAL SUPPLEMENT. ASORBIC ACID (SOURCE OF VITAMIN C). NATURAL AND SOME ARTIFICIAL COLORING.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS: CRUDE PROTEIN 35.0% MIN., CRUDE FAT 7.0% MIN., CRUDE FIBER 7.0% MAX., MOISTURE 8.0% MAX., ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS, EXCEPT FOR SOME ARTIFICIAL COLORING. NO PRESERVATIVES
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That's really cool Mike. Certainly never seen that before.

How long does it take for their shell to harden? A few hours or are we talking a day?

Less than a day I believe.

That's cool. So, you can't keep these guys with fish in the tank? I have thought about keeping cray fish in my tank, but what stopped me was the possibility of cray fish eating my small fish not small fish eating the cray while molting. How ironic.

They seem to do fine with fish too small to eat them. I've never seen a marble cray go for a fish, but I have seen them go for each other if I don't feed every day.