Red Claw Crayfish

[prison shepherd]

Hello,

I have two RC Crays, to which I believed to be one of each sex!

But yesterday, I noticed that one (Female) had got out the tank......Its a woman thing, think SHE went shopping! After tearing the place apart ( This is in a garge with her 6' tank,a 2' tank, 5' tank and a brine shrimp hatchery plus a 700 gal indoor Koi Tank! ) I found HER.....very dirty and DRIED up!

I put HER back into HER tank and SHE came around. Then the Male in the tank was getting it on with HER, They were going mad at it..........But then .......whats this, SHE has a faint RED CLAW........Is SHE now a HE? :evil:

I have had HER/HE upside down and check out the breeding parts...This is very hard to do.......and thought i had got it right?

Can anyone help me? If SHE/HE has got a Slight red claw could SHE/HE be a young male? (She/He/It is smaller than the Male)

Any Help would be good!

Prison Shepherd

[FishBait]

Hi Prison Shepherd

Well I am afraid that the RC cray is not a species the is kept and bred in New Zealand.

I have experence in the local species of fresh and saltwater crays but I don't know if that will help.

I was under the impresion that only the male RC cray's show red and you may be correct that the one in question was a young male. I wonder if the jumping from the tank was in response to being beaten up on by the dominant male, so he was making a dash to new territory.

With our local crays the easiest method of sexing is to look at the pleopod's under the tail, if they are large and overlap it is a female, if they are smaler and don't overlap it is a male.

Sorry I can't help any further but goodluck and keep us posted.

I hope to see a report on your breeding them.

Cheers