Breeding crawfish?

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Gearhead

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 19, 2008
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In the garage
How do you breed crawfish. I catch them during the summer but there is only a few months I can catch them. So I wanted to breed them during the other months so that I have a constant supply. The biggest tank I can use is a 20 gallon long. I also have a 10 gallon for the young if I need it. Give any info you can, food, substrate, live plants or not, lighting, temperature, etc. I can get quite a few during those few months, like 50 so I have plenty.
 
First and foremost, breeding is going to depend on the species you are catching. For example, if you're catching Orconectes species (there's 9 in your state), the majority of those are going to require that you buy a chiller for your tank. As they require cooler temperatures to signal berrying in the females. If you're catching Procambarus species (there's 3 in your state), breeding should be fairly easy. Cambarus and Fallicambarus (there's 5 in your state) can be either easy or difficult to breed.

So, you're going to need to have your crayfish IDed first before proceeding. But you have good sized tanks for breeding, so there's one plus already ^_^
 
You're also gonna need to sex them, obviously two males can't make babies...

Female:
female_crayfish_vent.jpg

Male:
male_crayfish_ventral.jpg

I still want your red Procambarus clarkii black_sun...
 
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