[mrbelvedere]

My C. shufeldtii just had babies. Two of them in fact.

I was looking very closely at my moss and Neocaridina zhangjijiensis babies, when I saw something that decidedly did not look like a baby shrimp was supposed to. Lo and behold, it was a baby dwarf cray.

I saw around five, but I'm sure there are quite a few more in there.

 

[Buckeye_Robert]

Hi David or new Dad.
These grow faster than shrimp do.
I cleared out all the new RCS babies in my tank
and put them in there own tank
and about 3 weeks later I noticed much bigger rcs.
it turns out there where Dwarf Crays and RCS born the same week.
Robert

 

[mrbelvedere]

When first born they can be difficult to tell apart. But they have a large body with a bent tail, which sets them apart immediately. It can take a bit of studying to tell, especially to one uninitiated in the invert hobby like myself.

Some of the babies looked orangish, is this normal or perhaps a red mutation like in C. patzcuarensis?

How much faster do they grow than RCS?

 

[sandiegoryu]

They grow quite fast. First of all their sizes at birth are much bigger than the speck that are RCS. And first you might not notice that they are growing much, but after you could see their patterning and coloring, then they start growing very fast. I noticed that my crayfish grew about half a centimeter in a week. Of course there are fast growers and slow growers.

But they are pretty awesome. Congrats to you mrbelvedere!

 

[mrbelvedere]

I will disagree with you on the size part. The smallest babies are comparable to newborn RCS. Approximately 2mm.

 

[sandiegoryu]

Well I had closely watched my pregnant female and I found the babies the day the babies were released. They were much bigger than the biggest RCS baby I have ever seen. There the size of week old RCS for me.

I dunno what it is. I've heard other people say its size at birth is small as an RCS but I found that wrong. I guess something in our waters? I have no idea.

 

[spypet]

you know, we need to make a new policy on PTF;
no thread should be made about babys without -
PICTURES !!!

 

[sandiegoryu]

Well not exactly new born but here's a few:

Not the best but am I right in saying these are the first juvenile/baby cray pics ever posted on TPT? I win!

 

[Cydric]

Nice pictures, Sandiegoryu.

 

[sunmiztres]

Congrats!!! Aren't they the cutest babies. I think cray babies are adorable
They also do look like shrimp when young. The only think that gives them away is the bent tail and those very very tiny pinchers THey do seem to grow slow when they are first born but after a month or so they grow more rapidly.

 

[spypet]

sunmiztres, how are these little guys when it comes to potentially disturbing low fine carpet plants?
is it best to wait till your plants are established and well rooted, or will they still pull and dig under?

 

[milalic]

I will disagree with you on the size part. The smallest babies are comparable to newborn RCS. Approximately 2mm.

The smalles crayfish babies are in no way comparable to baby RCS. They are bigger. When you start seeing the RCS, they have grown quite a bit from when they are born.

 

[milalic]

sunmiztres, how are these little guys when it comes to potentially disturbing low fine carpet plants?
is it best to wait till your plants are established and well rooted, or will they still pull and dig under?

They do not dig my plants, not even carpet ones.

 

[spypet]

They do not dig my plants, not even carpet ones.

I'm surprised to hear that; crayfish always seem to want to squeeze
themselves into a tight spot to hide, even if it's between plantlets.

I guess I'll have to try some and see for myself :wink:

 

[sunmiztres]

Correct, they don't mess with my Riccia carpet that I have. They are great with plants. There are many species of crays that do like to dig into the substrate or eat plants but not this specie.

 

[FISHNUTS]

Nice pics and congrats. Hopefully you can raise them to adults. :red_mouth

sl

 

[sandiegoryu]

Actually my female crayfish dug a little hole for her to hide into while she is pregnant and it disturbs and uproots my HM. I have also found another crayfish in a different tank that dug up a little hole in between two rocks. I filled the hole up and he promptly pushed the soil back to make his little hole again.

But I have planted HC in my tank its still there. I don't think they will target plants to rip apart but just holes that they might dig that may uproot your plants.

And yes thank you milalic for clarifying their size. Baby RCS are like a little speck while baby crayfish are very visible and their shape is very crayfish like.

 

[sunmiztres]

Mine do not up root any plants but i gve them many caves and places to hide. This is something you should do for any crayfish.