cray molting problem

[BigO6687]

i woke up this morning to see big chunks of my cray while he molted, i thought w.e he'll be fine, his molt is done, but now he's on his side with some soft yellowish fuzz sticking out of his left side, i'm not sure if he's dead or not, he still kind of reacts to the mag float moving around on the glass, but not when i touch him with it

help?

she's a good 5 inches+ and has never molted in the 3 months i've had her

 

[Chicklette]

Molts are usually pretty fast. What else do you have in the tank? If you have other crayfish they could have eaten her. I think he might be dead, sorry but wait for other replies before you remove him.

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

The fuzzy stuff is her Gills. The frequency of molts is exponential as they age. At first born they molt maybe once a day, but as they age to what you said, 5 inches, its moreso around once every 6 months or so. It also get's harder with age. They are more likely to lose limbs or even die during molts later in their life. The gills molt along with the body, so she probably wasn't able to get it off all the way and ended up pulling out some of her gills while trying. She should be alright but just keep a close eye on her.

Be careful with her as she will be soft without an exoskeleton. It will be about a day before she grows it back. Handling or touching her in any way could be potentially fatal. Just let her be and make sure tank mates aren't bothering her.

 

[BigO6687]

she's dead, but now some thick clearish-white substance is growing around the grape i left for him to eat that night and him

 

[knifegill]

Okay, bump for info and fear of this happening to mine. I've got crays on the way and need better intel on the ins and outs of iodine additives. Is it necessary to add iodine to the water or is a diet heavy in vegetable matter sufficient to ease the molting process?

 

[Bubbles2112]

Knifegill: Most cray moulting problems stem from a few things such age age, a lack of calcium in the water column, and to much inbreeding. The older theory was that there is not enough iodine in the water but current research has kind of pushed that iodine theory aside and there is some evidence that it may in fact be harmful to add iodine.

The addition of iodine to water is controversial with respect to crays. Current thought is that is unnecessary and I agree. As long as you have sufficent calcium in the water content (your KH) you will be fine. Crays do not ingest calcium by the foods they eat. They absorb it via the water column and store it in an area (looks like small pellets) just inside the mouths and they swallow these pellets when they enter the moult phase. You can sometimes see the calcium deposits in very young crays as their shells are not thick.

Also providing veggies to some crays is not worthwhile as some crays will not touch veggies and prefer a more meaty diet. You would have to determine if your cray will eat the veggies--some just wont touch them and will let them rot before they would eat it. It depends upon the species of crayfish (for example my Cherax sp prefers more veggies (but likes cooked chicken ) than my Procambarus sp but most of my marmorkrebs will eat both just as well) and then it is down to the particular crays preference on whether or not they will eat their veggies!

Age sometimes interferes with a crayfishes moult. The older a cray the tougher the moult.

The most important things that a cray needs are sufficient water hardness, lots of aeration and clean water! Nature will do the rest.

 

[knifegill]

Awesome. Thank you so much. These were very helpful words.

 

[pat3612]

Also people think because crays eat anything thats just what they feed them ,I have always found that a high ranking food like New Life spectrum , keeps them healthy and they have better colors.

 

[knifegill]

Oh, yes. I always do the best I can with feeding. Even creatures that "eat anything" do better when fed the right things. Usually an omnivore effort works out to be the most beneficial.

 

[Dark Jester]

I've only had my crays for a couple weeks, but I add Iodine and Calcium to their water. Kents Iodide and Kents Liquid Calcium. I've read a lot of the for/against arguments for iodine and I figure it can't hurt. I only do 1 drop of each per 10 gallons every couple days, effectively a half dose and not as often as the bottle recommends for SW Inverts.

If it does help, great. If not then oh well. At the dosage I give, 1 $8 bottle will last more than a year, so it's not exactly breaking the bank. I also provide some crushed egg shells for them to munch on, which they do occasionally. The crays don't seem to have any problems molting, some have already molted twice in the last 2 weeks, and the largest 2 have almost doubled in size.

Crays do not ingest calcium by the foods they eat.

Can you cite any sources for that statement? That is one I haven't seen before. What then would be the purpose for them eating their molted shells which primarily contain calcium? Not trying to start a debate or anything, I just hadn't heard that before. If it's true then there is no point in feeding any calcium rich foods, or egg shells or anything similar.