Symptoms similar to Crayfish Plague

black_sun

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 31, 2008
1,136
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New Jersey
I just received two P. clarkii juveniles from an eBay auction today (they were supposed to be P. alleni, but that's another issue). Anyway, one of the juveniles had the beginnings of shell rot so I preceded to treat it for the shell rot before introducing it to it's new tank. The second juvenile appeared to be in perfect condition (i.e. no shell rot, very active, hungry and eating right away, etc).

Well, I just went to turn off the lights on their tank and the individual with shell rot is now very active and exploring, but the other individual is now displaying the symptoms of crayfish plague. It's unable to right itself from it's side, it's losing motor coordination and it's twitching like it's seizuring (additionally, rapid onset of the prior symptoms is also a sign of the fungus infection).
I was hoping that perhaps it was going to molt, but there's no separation in the shell/tail and the twitching is never something I've seen before in an individual about to molt.

Truthfully, I really think this crayfish is suffering from the Aphanomyces astaci fungus (I've separated it from the other juvenile, though I suspect if this one is really infected, so is the other as well as the rest of the seller's brood). But I'm really, really hoping someone knows something else that might also present these symptoms other than the Crayfish Plague?

Here's a video of the crayfish: It's twitching and the only real motor function still working is the swishing of it's swimmerettes - http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b147/Okahn01/?action=view&current=MOV00263.flv


...thanks. :(


Edit: The crayfish has past. I know that the only 100% guaranteed way of determining a death by Aphanomyces astaci infection is to have a necropsy performed. I was wondering if anyone knew any universities, groups, etc that would perform a necropsy on my crayfish (even if I had to pay for the test to be performed). Not that I want to be overzealous about this, but the USA is already having the beginning issues of the spread of Aphanomyces astaci throughout various species. If this crayfish was infected, the seller needs to be notified and his stock humanely destroyed to prevent further spread to other hobbyists (and potentially to wild populations because we all know somebody somewhere eventually dumps a pet into the wild).
 

Yabbadoo

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 29, 2008
253
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The Dark Side
The only time I've seen them twitch around on their sides / back is before moulting and once, a few yrs ago, I put some water clear stuff in the tank.

Lost 4 Marron that twitched around and got something like cold shivers etc.. then karked it......
I didn't read the lable. *Remove inverts befor adding to tank*
Contained Aluminium Sulfate & Copper Sulfate.

Maybe it's in shock from transport / new tank water???
 

black_sun

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 31, 2008
1,136
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New Jersey
Yabbadoo;2498753; said:
The only time I've seen them twitch around on their sides / back is before moulting and once, a few yrs ago, I put some water clear stuff in the tank.

Lost 4 Marron that twitched around and got something like cold shivers etc.. then karked it......
I didn't read the lable. *Remove inverts befor adding to tank*
Contained Aluminium Sulfate & Copper Sulfate.

Maybe it's in shock from transport / new tank water???
Yea, someone else on another forum just suggested that. He said he's lost several crayfish that stressed/shocked themselves to death and got stuck trying to molt/adjust/etc. Seizing like that. Which, I feel bad for the poor crayfish, but god that made me feel so much better. I also learned this species is a vector, so it's not likely to suffer from the Crayfish Plague. Which again, makes me feel so much better... I was getting paranoid that the thing was infected (and we make excellent vectors) and I had handled it and then I might spread spores to my other tanks. *facepalms*

I get worked up too easily...
 
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