how to care for new cray babies?

[lbr1022]

Our blue crayfish had eggs but since she'd just survived a stressful cycle and developed fungus on most of the eggs, we assumed they were infertile stress eggs or eggs laid prior to molting or that the fungus had killed them all. Well, some of those eggs just hatched this morning and we have a handful of baby blue crays. Sadly, momma cray also just died in a molt. We have no idea how to care for her babies. They're so microscopically tiny right now. We don't know what or how to feed them, how to care for them, or what to do now. We know their chances of survival are slim, especially since there's some ammonia in the tank right now (a new cycle spiked by anti-fungal meds for mom), but on the off-chance they do make it, how do we care for the babies?

Can anyone help us?

 

[MABJ]

Well. I'd first ask is the tank planted? You need to keep all your parameters LOW. Nitrates not anywhere near above 20 and try to keep as low on ammonia and nitrite as possible.

You should feed some algae wafers combined with sinking pellets or blanched vegetables.

They also need calcium. So check your GH, KH and TDS. If you have a piece of cuttlebone, you'll be smart to stick a piece in for them.

Do everything cautiously and you'll have a decent amount of babies

 

[lbr1022]

Thank you so much for your help!!

Momma Cray died yesterday afternoon (a combo of a bad molt and the high ammonia) but the babies were still attached to her, hanging on, so we left them in there in hopes they'd make it. They just crawled off her this morning as we were leaving for work, but she's still in there. We will likely remove her tonight, throw in an algae round or some flake food for the babes, and keep testing their water - trying to get the tank through its cycle as quick and painlessly as possible - though ammonia is still at a 1...so we don't have much hope for their survival, unfortunately.

Our tank is not planted with live plants, just artificial. We read that crays love to eat live plants, which is why we didn't put any in. Should we?

Do you think liquid calcium would work rather than a cuttlebone? Where would I find /buy a cuttlebone?

 

[MABJ]

Cuttlebone-- yes, stick it in, although liquid probably would do fine too. Parrot section of any pet store.

Plants-- yes. You need em. Even if it's just java moss. There are crayfish that will demolish plants but I doubt these ones will. To be safe, just dont get expensive plants.

Crays love to eat dead plants/dying plants/biofilm.


You'll have to remove the dead body and keep the ammonia below .25... Keep changing your water.

 

[lbr1022]

Thank you, I truly appreciate the help. Any advice is great at this point as we never expected to have the babies, so we're totally unprepared for them!

 

[absolutangel04]

I agree, definitely remove the body asap. If your ammonia was high before the momma cray died, her decaying body will help it spike quickly.
What else is in your tank?

 

[lbr1022]

We'll be removing her tonight.

No other fish or live organisms or plants in the tank. It was just mamma, and now it's just babies. We have gravel, a slate hiding rock and cave, artificial plants of varying sizes, a filter, and wall bubbler.

So, live plants and cuttlebone...anything else?

 

[absolutangel04]

That's good. It means you don't have to worry about them being eaten.
Definitely keep a close eye on your water parameters. It's easy to overfeed while you are figuring out how much food they need, so remove uneaten things promptly. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Autumnsky]

Cuttle bone will probably float so you should put a weight on it and you only need a chunk like a coin size, but holding that down might be a challenge, you could try fishing line tied around with a weight tied to that. Top of the cuttle bone is soft so you can cut a channel in there for the line to tie.

 

[lbr1022]

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions. I really appreciate it. We're thankful for all the advice we can get.

They're even smaller than a piece of gravel, so just finding them and seeing if they're alive is difficult.

 

[siva]

Baby crays are very easy to care for and very hardy. I've found most crays I keep prefer shrimp pellets, Hikari crab cuisine, and frozen foods (bloodworms, brineshrimp, mysis shrimp) over everything else, so I'd recommend those as the staple diet.

Is this your only aquarium? If not, you should put media from another tanks filter into this tanks filter, to seed it with BB and end the cycle.

Remove the body ASAP and do a massive water change. Scan the water carefully for baby crays before you dump it. Those little suckers just love to get vacuumed up.

Cuttlebone, as mentioned, is needed. Add some chunks to the substrate and leave a little sticking out so they have access to it. If you have soft water/low pH adding some crushed aragonite to the filter or aragonite sand to your substrate is a good idea as well.

 

[Sake]

I haven't tried this myself, but I hear you can boil cuttlebone and it will sink quicker.

 

[siva]

Hmm..interesting..I would have expected it to dissolve if boiled.

 

[Sake]

Hmm..interesting..I would have expected it to dissolve if boiled.

I'm sure if you boiled it long enough it would.