Help with Crayfish Identification

[pufferpuggirl]

I've had these crayfish for a couple of months or so, and I know they are "blue crayfish", or what are sold as "blue lobsters" over here, but I'm wondering if anyone can give me a specific ID on this crayfish. I have three of them (the Kray twins and their mobster girlfriend, Moll) and I'd just like to know which species they might be.
I'd really appreciate the latin name if anyone can provide that for me .... ???
Thanks in advance.

Reg Crayfish 1.jpg

Reg Crayfish 2.jpg

[xrayjeeper83]

looks like puffer food hahaha JP I have no idea

[pufferpuggirl]

Hey .... they most certainly ARE NOT puffer food!

Although I know most people have no problem feeding them to their puffers. For one thing, they'd be very expensive to feed my puffers, and I just can't bring myself to do it.

[xrayjeeper83]

ya the blue crays' are like 10 bucks each. Thats why to much for puffer food

species name is Procambarus alleni, if they are true electric blue

[J-P]

xray ohh cool. I'd just clip off the claws and have them as puffer food

Or a craw bake!

I don't think it is an electric blue. We have these in our rivers where the tips are blue like that. Sorry I can't help with an ID, but it does look delicious

[soggydrysuit]

Hi PPG,

That's a Cherax quadricarinatus, I think. Or Red clawed yabbie. It's the same one that I kept. Northern territories of Oz, some in PNG. I also think that's the only one we are allowed to keep in the UK because they are truly tropical

Just as an aside, I was in a river down south a couple of years ago and the river was infested by the american origin signal crayfish. The odd thing was, I disturbed a mink who swam off upstream and I later saw it catch and eat a crayfish. One alien eating another. Wierd...

[pufferpuggirl]

I actually thought it might be Cherax quadracinatus ... but could not find one photo on the web of one to compare with mine.
Thanks Mr Soggy

[BiffMalawi]

I think the ID is good. I found an awesome crayfish forum. It will give you all the info you need. Not sure if we can post links to other forums certainly not much overlap with this one, so here goes crayfishmates.com

[soggydrysuit]

That's possibly the most informative crayfish site I've seen. Interesting...

I don't know; Puffers, pipes, pacu's - I just want to keep literally everything

I'm not too sure what the minimum tank size is for these red claws but once again, I'm interested. Given good puffer style filtration and some buffering coral sand or gravel they are not too difficult to keep. Mine used to dance around the tank when he thought he was going to be fed a whitebait. I do have the patched up tank that was smashed by my surfboards a while back - I'd siliconed the two broken glass peices back together and reinforced it with a half inch thick plate of acrylic. I dare it to leak! (In the garage of course)

I'd have a spare 36 by 12 by 15 inch tank if I put the Clarias catfish into the (indoor trop stock vat) pond with the pacu (after a month it needs a bigger tank anyway). I'm not sure I'm going to do that because I quite like the smaller gourami's and angelfish etc in there. Found a baby paradise fish in the pond on performing a water change over the w/e - just one a half an inch long so the parents must have constructed a bubble nest behind the pond filter without me knowing and at least one baby survived. Given what the fry eat, that's truly amazing.

I'd quite like to keep the catfish on it's own as a specimen of pure ugly. The Clarias is a four incher now (was two and a bit) and it's accelerating

Sounds like I need to aquire a rubbermaid tub and a reshuffle

Think priority goes to getting my GSP's to full marine. I'm lucky in that everything is there - just need a 25kg bucket of salt and some more aragonite sand. Then I'll have my seahorse tank back again... !

Talk about foxes, grain, chickens and a river!

[pufferpuggirl]

I fed my crays an earthworm last night and that was one of the coolest sights I've seen in a long time! They loved it.
However, I would have to say that my Vampire crabs were even more enthusiastic than the crays about getting an earthworm. They jumped out of nowhere and pounced on the worm, dragging it off kicking and screaming! Very cool.

[soggydrysuit]

There was a fw crustacean in my lfs before I went on hols - it looked a bit like a crayfish and was about the same size as you usually find them in the shops but had very slender claws, sort of an overgrown shrimp. I have no idea what that was. And I wonder if it's still there. I'd prefer a red claw though...

My red claw yabbie grew to eight inches and had antennae that must have been at least a foot long. It's colours intensified as it grew larger.

Probably a just feeding response, but he seemed to know that my appearance meant food

[crayfish]

It's Cherax quadricarinatus, the redclaw crayfish-I'm just confirming as somebody already IDed it correctly.

[pufferpuggirl]

Thank you for the confirmation. Now, maybe you can help me to identify who's male and who's female. The man at the LFS said that males have one large claw and one smaller claw, and that females have both claws the same size. Is this accurate?
And if I do have one male and one female, is there any chance of a mating?

[BiffMalawi]

You can positively ID them by picking them up and looking at the under belly near where the tail starts. Males have two small leg like appendages females a large round opening. They got pics on that site to illustrate. If you have a pair they will definitely mate. Just make sure they have lots of places to hide as they will eat each other in a second if they don't have a safe place to molt and they are going to molt soon. They usually molt shortly after being put in a new home. They also love to go on walk abouts so the tank has to be sealed so there are no possible escape holes or you'll find em in bed with you one morning.

[pufferpuggirl]

Yeah, I had problems already .... we originally bought 2, and then I thought one had gotten out, although I wasn't sure how as the tank was secure. So we bought another. Then it appeared that we had 3, so the one I thought had gotten away, came back, or was hiding in the sand? I don't know. But we're back down to 2 again because one was murdered a few days ago. When they molt they don't leave the antennae behind do they? I thought the antennae stayed with them .... and hence that's why I think one was killed and it not just being an empty shell. I have given them a few different places to hide because I heard they will cannibalise one another. I also feed them daily so they don't get hungry and want to eat one another.