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Procambarus alleni The Blue Crayfish
Introduction
Blue crayfish is the same
species as normal colored crayfish. Sometimes they are called lobsters
as well, because everybody knows what lobster is and crayfish is
something unknown, but it in not the same. Lobsters have two claws
where each is of different size, but crayfish have claws of the same
size.The blue color is caused by gene mutation just like albino form
of any animal or human species. However, just like other artificial
color mutations, this blue color causes that an animal with blue color is eaten very quickly. It is like an animal which has a light panel with a title: I'm here, come and eat me. The blue color can by different at various geographic locations. They can grow to the size about 15 cm in an aquarium.
Aquarium and origin
Crayfish lives in Australia in warm and freshwater waters. However, in home aquariums they can live in ordinary room temperatures, or even cooler waters from about 12 to 22°C. Bear in mind that the water has to be clean and well aerated, so that you need a good water filter and aerator. Crayfish prefer soft water much more than hard water which is not very suitable for them. Additionally, a bit acid water is much better than alkaline. The tank
should be large and there should be places for hiding as well. They
don´t need dry land, so normal kind of fish tank is satisfactory. You
should keep only one crayfish species in one tank. They are very
aggressive and they will try to eat everything what moves, or they will
try nip fins of fish inside the tank.
Feeding
As I have mentioned above, crayfish will eat everything. They find their food at the bottom levels. Blue claw lobsters will eat death fishes, special food or they will hunt other fish. They even may eat vegetables or aquarium plants, so growing plants in such tank is not the best idea.
You can find various foods which are suitable for Crayfishes in aquatic
shops; These include special tablets for bottom-dwellers fish (catfish
tablets for instance).
Sexing
The crayfish male has a red mark on it's claws, but the female doesn´t have so. The red color is very expressive on the blue crayfish'
body. Crayfishes lay eggs and one female can lay from 10 up to 250 eggs
at once. The eggs are stuck to the females' body (under her back part)
where are swimming legs, also called pleopods. When the fry is born,
they look very similar like their parents do, the only difference is
that the fry is smaller. You don´t have to worry about their food
because they eat almost everything like their parents, just in smaller
size. The first day of their life is critical and not every specimen
survives this period, and those who survive maybe first 14 days have a
good chance to grow up and mature in general. Crayfish specimen gets
it's color only when it reaches maturity. Until that time they are
gray. Their colors are required for breeding purpose only, so there is
no need to get it sooner.
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