Need Info on Crayfish

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Boogety48 said:
So far so good. Mr.Pinchie seems to be liking his new home. I try to keep him entertained by burying freeze dried brine shrimp in the sand. I added more sand to my tank so he can dig around if he wants. I also removed all my live plants. He left them alone at first but then I noticed they had little nibbles on them so they came out. He doesn't seem to mind the snails in there with him. I keep watching to make sure everything is ok.
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Thanks for the update. It's good to hear
 
I live in Louisiana. Here... WE eat the crawfish. lol I ate about 5 pounds out of the 200 or so pounds we boiled up for the family last weekend. But I do keep a mated pair of Cajun dwarf crawfish in my 20h planted tank along with 7 glowlight tetras, a brestlenose pleco, a betta, 2 nerite snails, ramshorns snails and an eastern American newt. They're all happy together. Well, the newt eats the ramshorns but that's fine by me. They breed like crazy. Dwarf crawfish are so great. Not as cool as the big guys but very peaceful. :)
 
Ok so I don't know what happened. Mr.Pinchie died tonight. He molted 3 days ago so I've been leaving him alone but I noticed today he was swimming very erratically all over the tank. He was eating just fine and acting normal except for the swimming around thing. I walked in and he was laying on his back, not moving. The only thing I know is different is I did a water change and added a little more sand.
 
Do you use tap water for your water changes? What's the hardness (GH / KH) in your tank. Should have some hardness for the little guy. It could be something completely different though. Soooo hard to say. :(
 
I do use tap water for my tanks but I don't know what the hardness is in it. I don't have the test to find that out, I have just the basic api test kit. I've never had a problem before with the water, but I've never had a crayfish either though. The tank was already established before I put him in there.
 
Tap water is usually the best option with these guys. If your water is soft it might cause a problem for them. Larger crawfish in a closed system often need a pretty good amount of calcium in the water to harden their shell after they molt. It may not be the cause at all but the timing of Mr. Pinchie's passing makes it worth looking into. Some people (like me) even add a little of the liquid calcium supplements that reef keepers use to boost the calcium levels for their shrimp, snails or crawfish. I've even seen people put a calcium vitamin pill or a piece of cuttlebone to do it. Others put a bag of crushed coral gravel in their filter. Again, I can't rule out the chance that something else didn't cause this.
 
I think I may have found why he passed. I did a water change the day before he died and I did one right after I pulled him out. All that's left in the tank right now is one mystery snail. After both water changes I didn't do a test until tonight, I know I should have done the tests. My results are this:

pH: 6.4
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 20 or 40, the color is really close

My nitrates are really high but this could have been caused by him sitting in the water when he died.
 

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Your nitrate levels are high. 20-40ppm isn't gonna kill him, but that's after 2 back to back water changes. Your nitrates must've been really high before those. That could be the culprit. Your PH is also on the low side unless you're dosing co2. It's at a great level for fish and plants but it could indicate that it may be softer than you want for a crawfish. Are you planing on trying another one?
 
Yes I want another one. I use floramax in my substrate. I had live plants in there until the caryfish started munching on them, so I took them out. I added my big moss ball in there and I plan on getting some more moss the throw in. Next time I work I'm going to get some more plants that I don't care about so if it munches on them it'll be ok.
 
CorallineAlgae said:
Your nitrate levels are high. 20-40ppm isn't gonna kill him, but that's after 2 back to back water changes. Your nitrates must've been really high before those. That could be the culprit. Your PH is also on the low side unless you're dosing co2. It's at a great level for fish and plants but it could indicate that it may be softer than you want for a crawfish. Are you planing on trying another one?
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What would be the best way to raise my pH slowly?
 
What you really want is calcium. An easy way to get it is to buy a cuttlebone from a pet shop. Cut a small dime to quarter size piece off of it and place it in the tank. Then just replace it when it dissolves. This is a less dramatic way of adding calcium to your tank that allows crawfish or shrimp the option of picking at the cuttlebone on their own.
 
I boiled the shells then tried to pull all the slimy/ lining out of the egg before I put it in. They don't really do anything with them. I have some shells broken up in there too.
 
I got another crayfish and so far so good. I've had him a few days and he molted. I'm so paranoid right now because this is where Mr.Pinchie got to then died. I'm completely leaving this one alone. He's eaten his exoskeleton that he shed. I read somewhere that they won't eat for three days after they shed so I haven't fed him, this is day two. I had thrown an algae tab in the night before so he had that to munch on while he goes through this. I'll post some pics after he's done and starts getting better. Oh and this one's name is Sir Pinch-A-Lot, my husband named him lol.
 
Boogety48 said:
Oh and this one's name is Sir Pinch-A-Lot, my husband named him lol.
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He's got a big tail and he cannot lie. All the other crawfish can't deny... Sorry, I just had to.
 
CorallineAlgae said:
He's got a big tail and he cannot lie. All the other crawfish can't deny... Sorry, I just had to.
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I know that's what I think of everytime I hear his name. My husband's like "he was knighted" and all I can hear is Sir Mix-A-Lot in my head.
 
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