Rant: Got my Marbled Cray(s) today.

[ramcharger1979]

I have had 2 of these for over a month and last Saturday the bigger one just up and died. I thought maybe she was just resting so I threw her in the Fahaka tank and he would not even go for it. I still have one that made it. I sure hope to get some babies some time. We have a lady here in town who has 100s of them and she said the first time it can take up to 4 months before they get eggs.

[xrayjeeper83]

When I got mine they were that size and took about 3-4 months to berry. And now I have more cray babies then I know what to do with lol. I had bought 4 crays and all 4 seem to berry at the same time

[J-P]

I was taking a look at them yesterday (only 4 left now), and they are nearly double the size they were when they came in! It has been just over a week!

[Lil' Swimz$]

That's great news! Glad they recovered!

[J-P]

It is cool! Can't wait to see them migrate to the big tank

[xrayjeeper83]

Ya I started with 4 and now have probably close to 80+ maybe even triple digits. I just noticed a new batch of babies

[L!$A]

I find with my marbled crays, the best way to get them breeding is, lots of plants, hiding places, and honestly, let algae and bacteria grow, it doesn't look very pretty, but that is when my crays produce the most.

[geronimo69]

I agree with the idea of many hiding places and fake plants. My cray tank is a 55 and has more stuff in it than PP's GSP tank (it's a beautiful tank PP, just needed a comparision). I have babies, juveniles, adults...

I fed a nice big one to my Fahaka last night, he was stuffed!

In my experience, letting algae grow is just unsightly. As long as they are fed a varied diet, they will berry every month or so. I had one that just berried and she was only about 1.5". I thought they had to be bigger? Guess not. Her clutch was not as big as a larger one would have.

I feed mine:

Potatoes
Cucumber
Algae discs
various sinking pellets... for catfish, bottom dwellers, cichlid pellets, etc.

I also leave a piece of that (white rock that birds use to sharpen their beeks or something?) and they takes bites out of it every so often. I've heard it does them good for their shells. Not sure where I got that info.

[L!$A]

Sounds like it's cuttlebone that you're talking about lol

Yeah we tried keeping their tank nice and clean, and they just never produced anything I suppose it all depends on water chemistry as well!

[xrayjeeper83]

I have mine in a 55 with rocks, clam shells turned upside down, and pvc pipes for hiding and ive just let the algae go nuts. I feed em algae discs, fish flakes, and crab/lobster pellets and the bits left over on the clam shells

[geronimo69]

Sounds like it's cuttlebone that you're talking about lol

Yeah we tried keeping their tank nice and clean, and they just never produced anything I suppose it all depends on water chemistry as well!

That's the one Lisa! haha, thanks for that. Couldn't put my finger on the word...

I keep my chemistry pretty much the same as the rest of my FW tanks... PH is high, over 8. Weekly WCs, amm = 0, nitrites =0, nitrates <10. I run an AC110, AC30 and an airstone in the tank as well. I have a dim light that I turn on for them about 6-8 hours a day.

[L!$A]

No worries! lol I don't even have a light on my cray tanks .. a filter, thats it. lol well long with decor of course!

[J-P]

Some more pics I took today.

The tank is still newly cycled so I am starting to see some micro fauna in there. Mostly cyclops running around on the tank side. I haven't see those for a long time.

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