sick dwarf crayfish?

[chewycwook]

Hello, about 2 months ago i bought 3 dwarf crayfish, two of them seem to have molted twice since i have had them. I have never witnessed this but 2 of them have grown quite a bit (in comparison to their starting size) today I noticed the one that has not grown laying on its back. I originally thought it was dead so I went to take it out and it moved its tail. It is actually alive upon close inspection. It has a crack between the head and the tail. I have never witnessed one actually molting before, do they tend to lay seemingly lifeless like that or is there some other problem? Is there something I can do to help it? If it is just molting how long should I expect this to take?

sorry for the lack of introduction of myself and barrage of questions. I have lurked these forums for a while and i suppose this crisis was enough to cause me to join. Thank you in advance for the help.

 

[chewycwook]

sorry I will try to provide more information, was just a little stressed and wanted to get the questions out as quickly as possible. It is a 10g tank, was running for about 3 months. put in 3 neon tetras one day after tank set up (i know bad idea but was poorly informed by the pet store) about a week later I added a pleco (another bad Idea and will soon be trying to find a new home for him, he is about 3" at this time) about 2 weeks after that I added 3 dwarf crayfish (not CPO's) and about 2 weeks ago I added some microsword. I have a filter rated for 20 gallons and have never changed the filter medium. I have rinsed it off in the discarded water during water changes. I change about 20% once a week now while vacuuming. I do not vacuum around the plants but everywhere else. prior to having the dwarf crayfish added I did about 40-50% water changes at least once every 3 days to try and prevent my prematurely added fish from getting sick. I do not have a test kit and have been trying not to overfeed, a SMALL pinch for the fish and a sinking pellet broken in half and then 3 pieces from the half one for each of the crays. Hopefully you guys can help me keep this to 3 pieces and not have to reduce it to 2! oh also every water change I was adding the proper (2 drops per gallon per the bottle) of dechlorinate prior to adding it to the tank.
Sorry for all the info but thanks for the help!

 

[FastFly67]

I'm new to crays as well. After talking about molting with the lady I got mine from she informed me that yes, they do lay on their back when molting. It makes it easier for them to shake off the old shell. She told me it take usually about 3 hours for a full molt but she has seen one take almost 2 days. She informed me it's best to give them lots of nooks, crannies, and caves so they have a safe secure location to molt because they are so vulnerable during that transition. Hope this helps.

 

[davePM]

Way too many fish for a 10g tank. And you really need to go and get a test kit. You need to know how much ammonia and nitrite you have while the tank is still cycling as you must do multiple daily water changes to keep your fish alive. But you will have to rehome most of those fish .

 

[chewycwook]

Thanks for the advice about molting! I certainly hope that is the case. Is it really to many fish? it was my understanding that the 1" rule was still somewhat true especially when some stay on the bottom and some are more mid level. The fish and crays average about 1 inch so that would put me at 6" and the pleco would bump that to 9" i know I will have to get rid of the pleco as it grows but it it really that much of an issue to be labeled as "way to many" at this point?

 

[FastFly67]

I wouldn't put 3 crays in a 10g. There's not really a big enough footprint for them.
They can be territorial and that's just not enough room. I'd look to rehome the pleco now. More than likely you got a common which can grow to 18" or more. Add in the fact that most any pleco will have a fairly large bioload and you're looking for trouble. I know this isn't what you want to hear but you asked, I answered.