Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Non puffer freshwater discussion. Don't tell your puffers, they'll be jealous!
byrdman75
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Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by byrdman75 »

does anyone here breed them? i was going to start a tank up for them then i read my stupid states laws.................

anyone wana help a brother out ;-)
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defool89
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by defool89 »

you can find a lot of information on youtube on breeding marbled cray... true marbled cray just keep cloning themselves....you need a lot of hiding and a fairly large tank exclusively for them.its not worth it for me to breed em and go through all that trouble. better off and cheaper off buying pounds from a Vietnamese supermarket.
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scpion
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by scpion »

Yeah.. Didn't work out for me as well. Imo it need a huge tank and big maintenance for the survival rate to be high.. As defool said, better to buy from market.
I am not a Troll, I am just pissed..!
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scpion
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by scpion »

Talking about crays.. Just 2 weeks ago I fed mine a live cray and he was so excited that he suck the whole 3in+ cray in and got stuck in the throat... Then he tried coughing that darn thing out but couldn't.. I know that there are some kind of crushing plates in the throat so I decided to monitor if he can settle it by himself. After about 2 hours, Istill see it in its mouth and he seems to be breathing hard.. I was so worried that might be because of the hooks on the shell or something get stuck permanently or the cray starts to die and rot in there.. I made a risky decision to manually remove it... It's a 19in beast and fishing it out of the tank carries many risk. Puffing up with air etc.. So everything was done quickly.. Knocking him out and using plier to dislodge that darn thing and it's still in one perfect piece.. Fortunately everything went ok if not I would be kicking my own arse for the next 3 weeks for making this crazy move..
I am not a Troll, I am just pissed..!
byrdman75
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by byrdman75 »

so a 20 long wont work huh lol
LRU
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by LRU »

byrdman75 wrote:so a 20 long wont work huh lol
I successfully bred marbled crays for a bit in a 10g...no filter or heater or anything...fed the tank and let it get dirty and all of a sudden I see like 15-20 little crays running around...offspring of 2 adults that were ~2.5-3".

I don't recommend this method, and they did start cannibalizing each other. I was able to grow out about 7-8 of those babies in a 5g for a while then sold them to another guy.
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defool89
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by defool89 »

byrdman75 wrote:so a 20 long wont work huh lol
try atleast a 55 gallon if you want to venture but youre not saving any money
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jesper
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by jesper »

Got 3 pcs 2" marbles like 10 days ago and 2day i discover 4-5pcs 6-8mm crayfish babies roamingen the bottom ;)-

Obviously one or more of the 3 crays must have had latestage eggs so i kinda got a headstart.

Have em in a 50g with filter but no heater and a temp at 18-19' celsius.

Been feeding pellets and the not so common leftovers from my lineatus, have red boiled lettuce and vegs that sink Will be good.

They also need hard water neutral to slightly alkaline.

If you or others starts to breed them make no mistanke, they are escapeartists for sure. Less than 1h after adding them to the tank, one was like 2/3 up the intake for the external filterpump ;-D

Going to the vietnamese market wont work as we dont have one and buying from petshop way to expensive for extended period.
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by jesper »

Just wanted to let you know this is easy!
The first batch that came with the adults actually included 9 clones all of which are growing now turning dark/marblecolored and like 10-12mm in length.

Then today, i see one of the grownups has like 50! berries hanging from her tail :-D
Looks like a success, Cant wait to start feeding them to wilma..

Feeding pellets and boiled peas, cucumber and a piece of shrimp now and then.
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by LRU »

Glad it's going well for you. I picked up another marbled crayfish on a whim and hope to have some big enough to feed my smaller puffers in the near future.
jesper
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by jesper »

Studied them a bit, seems like the optimum temp are 23-25 C.
Water needs to be hard so no ro water for crayfish unless calcium are added.
Change water as you Would on your fish.
They mature in about 150 days
Carry their berries for anything between 22 and 42 days
8-9 hours of light
Adults will carry anything from 400-1000 eggs or berries as theyre called.
When an adult isolates itself let it be.
Sand or a combination are preferred as they like to dig in.

Depending on tank size it seems to be a good idea to seperate the hatchlings.
Atleast when pop. Increases :-D

The bigger one has allready moulded 3 times but then again, i feed them all the time as that supposedly are a main motivator for breeding
Have had them for like a month..the small geezers are growing, getting darker, i think 12mm now
The one with berries are getting out more often so soon she will let them go i think.

Best of luck breeding these quite fascinating creatures
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busybones
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by busybones »

I just ordered 5 adults and cannot wait to get them started. I usually catch wild crays and quarantine or freeze them but my freezer died (lost all of my stock) and I'm stuck driving 30 minutes one way and paying $1 each for feeders. I'm hoping these will produce well.
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LRU
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by LRU »

busybones wrote:I just ordered 5 adults and cannot wait to get them started. I usually catch wild crays and quarantine or freeze them but my freezer died (lost all of my stock) and I'm stuck driving 30 minutes one way and paying $1 each for feeders. I'm hoping these will produce well.
Mine produces well but you'll need to spread out the babies as pointed out above. I'm down to about 5 juveniles out of about 25. This is in about a 10 gallon tank. There were even more eggs but the incompetent salesperson at the store where I bought mine knocked half the hatchlings off while catching the crayfish.
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AquaMike
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by AquaMike »

This was also a future plan of mine. Was wondering where you guys got your marbled crays and how much they typically cost. Also, do you find more success if you over do it with hiding spots? I was thinking of stacking (and glueing) different sized pvc pipes together. Also, I have read they eat all live plants. How bad is this? I was thinking of putting a lot of java moss (esp for the babies) and some hard leaved anubias.

Does anyone worry and take off the big pinchers for caution? Just curious. I have heard of a few stories of fiesty crays not giving up very easily.
Would anyone with experience suggest breeding apple snails over these guys?
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busybones
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Re: Marbled Crayfish Breeding?

Post by busybones »

I ordered mine off a guy from eBay. I paid only $2 each plus shipping. I've only had mine a couple weeks and already have one berried. He shipped a berried one but the stress of the trip caused her to lose most of them. I have the 5 adults in a 10 gallon with PVC pipe (5" sections one for each cray.). I have a bunch of java moss in there and feed them bloodworms and cucumber slices. My plan is to transfer the berried adults into another 10 gal until they drop the babies..the other 10 has a lot of PVC stacked inside and java moss. I'm new to raising them so I'm sure I'll have a bunch of trial and error lol
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