how long does a crayfish molt?

[stevensys]

hi, i'm new here and recently just bought 2 crayfish ( bonnie and clyde).

i'm just wondering how long does a crayfish started to molt and finish molt. means duration taken for the molt?

if 1 of them are molting, does the other 1 will attack the other's(under molt)??

 

[lmw80]

hi stevensys! Welcome!

It can take quite a while for a crayfish to molt. Several hours to a day as far as I am aware of.

If 1 is molting, the other may or may not attack...if he does attack, it may kill the molting crayfish because his exoskeleton (outside) hasn't finished developing/hardening yet.

 

[jmeunier]

I've owned two crayfish in my career as a hobbyist. I'm down to one now, but I'll explain.

Got them both at the same time. They both molted (overnight) about 2 weeks after I got them. They were about 3 inches at the time. About a day later, one attacked and pretty much consumed the other. Oh well, down to 1 now.

Since then (about 5 months), the crayfish has molted 3 additional times, all overnight. It's now up to about 7 inches, and hasn't molted in about 3 months. I found that when it had a supply of live fish to eat (darn!), he molted quite frequently. Since I've moved the cray into it's own 10G, he hasn't molted at all.

 

[shellid30]

Hello, I have a 65 gallon fresh water aquarium and am wondering if I can put my daughters newly acquired cray fish in it. She was studying them at school and was picked to bring it home and I know nothing about them. Right now she has it living in a plastic box and moves it to another box to feed it. It has molted overnight and few other sites suggest leaving the old exoskeleton in with it because they need it for the calcium to help it harden back up. If I do move it to the aquarium is there anything special I need to do? Thanks again for any help.