Crawfish help pls.. ID

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VinceC_69

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 22, 2008
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Canada eh?
hay all my local fish store has these little vibrant orange crawfish that are about 1.5" long. They have em labled as "electric orange crawfish" and im wondering if there cambarellus Patzcuarenisis (dwarf orange crawfish) . The guy there says they will get about 4-5 inches but i cant have them get that big for my tank. is there any way he could be wrong, and that they are the dwarf guys? Are there even neon crawfish that arnt dwarfs cause i cant seem to find em on the net.

P.s when i say neon.. I mean they glow, they are Verry bright orange if that helps
 
I have a 10g and a 20g. Its not weather he will fit in the tank at 6 inches.. Im worried if he will injor or kill my other fish. both tanks have african peacock's and 3" columbian tetras in em. The 20 gal also has a pair of baby 2" ID sharks in it as well.
So a full size crayfish would kill my tetras, and leave scars on my peacks would it not?
 
My LFS sells "electric orange lobsters" and "bright orange lobsters" but they are usually Cherax holthuisi or Procambarus clarkii orange morphs (depends on which vendor the shipment came from). Cherax holthuisi usually tops out at 4in and assorted change. And Procambarus clarkii usually sit around 4-6in for a long time before they reach top out size (7-8in). Anyway, CPOs (the dwarf cray) top out at 1.5-2in as adults. So if the guy says they're going to get bigger than that, he's not selling that species.

Let me see if I can find some pics of my male P. clarkii... he's pretty neon depending on the lighting and the substrate he's on.
 
Okay, found some. This is my largest male, and he's pretty bright/neon (brighter than any of my CPOs/Cambarellus patzcuarensis):

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20rsiaf.jpg

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Were they like that (in terms of like color, patterning, claw shape, etc)?
 
ya he looks like that, heres a pic i found on the net that looks the closest to them, this is the dwarf one right? Im going to go in tomorrow and look at them how can i tell if its the dwarf one or not? are there any dead give aways that will asure me that its not th 6-8 inch one?
 

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That picture is the dwarf species.

Hmm, you're best bet would be to look at the areola on the crayfish (that spacing on the back in the shell), a really open/wide areola would be a sign that it's a CPO. A really closed/narrow areola and it's probably a juvenile P. clarkii.
Here's a pic for example (red arrow points to the areola. P. clarkii on the left, CPO on the right):
29wpkeb.jpg


Other things to look for are the shape of the claw (reference the picture again. P. clarkii on the left, CPO on the right). CPOs claws are a little more narrow and straight with a wider base. The P. clarkii also have very jagged and bumpy claws, however, this isn't always apparent until they are closer to adults (I have a juvenile female with completely smooth claws at the moment). Though, the arms of P. clarkii, even at a young age, seem to portray the beginnings of little spiky protrusions that become really accentuated as adults.

And just from personal experience, the CPOs I've kept all seem to look like they have "pupils" (they don't really) in their eyes. Where all of my P. clarkii (irrespective of color or color morph) have solid black eyes. But I can only base this on the 8 CPOs and 10 P. clarkii I've kept, it may not be a sure thing through out the entire species.
 
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