Crayfish survived rigor mortis?

[rudywieck52]

I recently order an electric blue crayfish from Aquatic Arts. It was in my tank for about a week with an electric blue dwarf gourami, 7 red cherry shrimp, and a clown pleco. I came to school (I’m an educator, and this tank is for my students) and the crayfish was dead and upside down. I fished him out and threw him away and told my class that I had taken him home to day before, and that he would be back next week. I then ordered a new cray from Aquatic Arts. This one was much whiter than the first, but the kids didn’t notice. It was in my tank for one day and the next morning it was again upside down and dead. It was solid and would roll to its back when I went to fish it out. But then I saw one of its whiskers twitch, so I decided to leave him in over the weekend (mostly out of laziness). I was shocked to arrive this morning and see that he is alive and thriving! I have no idea how this happened. He didn’t molt. He is also almost as much red as he is blue.

Any idea what’s going on here? The water parameters are normal and everybody else is doing well. I feed him mostly Hikari Crab Cuisine, although he does steal the pleco’s algae wafers sometimes. Is he red because he ate a cherry shrimp (I’m pretty sure I’m down one, but it’s hard to keep them all accounted for).

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[djsaltynuts]

I recently order an electric blue crayfish from Aquatic Arts. It was in my tank for about a week with an electric blue dwarf gourami, 7 red cherry shrimp, and a clown pleco. I came to school (I’m an educator, and this tank is for my students) and the crayfish was dead and upside down. I fished him out and threw him away and told my class that I had taken him home to day before, and that he would be back next week. I then ordered a new cray from Aquatic Arts. This one was much whiter than the first, but the kids didn’t notice. It was in my tank for one day and the next morning it was again upside down and dead. It was solid and would roll to its back when I went to fish it out. But then I saw one of its whiskers twitch, so I decided to leave him in over the weekend (mostly out of laziness). I was shocked to arrive this morning and see that he is alive and thriving! I have no idea how this happened. He didn’t molt. He is also almost as much red as he is blue.

Any idea what’s going on here? The water parameters are normal and everybody else is doing well. I feed him mostly Hikari Crab Cuisine, although he does steal the pleco’s algae wafers sometimes. Is he red because he ate a cherry shrimp (I’m pretty sure I’m down one, but it’s hard to keep them all accounted for).

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

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my gabon shrimp plays dead for about a week at a time if i spook him. i feel like allot of people throw away or flush them when they do so. maybe this is the case w the crayfish? ik my shrimp does this because he is wild caught maybe the crayfish are as well? crustaceans also will roll onto their side or back if they have ph shock.

 

[Deadeye]

I’ve had one have a bad molt and stay like that, with the twitching, for over a month before it died.
Glad to hear he is doing well!

 

[Magnus_Bane]

I recently order an electric blue crayfish from Aquatic Arts. It was in my tank for about a week with an electric blue dwarf gourami, 7 red cherry shrimp, and a clown pleco. I came to school (I’m an educator, and this tank is for my students) and the crayfish was dead and upside down. I fished him out and threw him away and told my class that I had taken him home to day before, and that he would be back next week. I then ordered a new cray from Aquatic Arts. This one was much whiter than the first, but the kids didn’t notice. It was in my tank for one day and the next morning it was again upside down and dead. It was solid and would roll to its back when I went to fish it out. But then I saw one of its whiskers twitch, so I decided to leave him in over the weekend (mostly out of laziness). I was shocked to arrive this morning and see that he is alive and thriving! I have no idea how this happened. He didn’t molt. He is also almost as much red as he is blue.

Any idea what’s going on here? The water parameters are normal and everybody else is doing well. I feed him mostly Hikari Crab Cuisine, although he does steal the pleco’s algae wafers sometimes. Is he red because he ate a cherry shrimp (I’m pretty sure I’m down one, but it’s hard to keep them all accounted for).

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

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I would just say it's part of its ancestors genetics that gave it the slightly red hue. Ofcourse it could have been wild caught too but usually wild crayfish change from red/brown to blue in an aquarium habitat so idk if it's just happening in reverse with this one pre not. My guess is tho that most likely what happened was the parents were just 2 different colors, red and blue, and when reproducing some of the offspring must have gotten color genes from both parents.

Btw how did you acclimate the crayfish when ya added them in? Ik crayfish and other crustaceans tend to be very sensitive to chemical balance changes. So who knows maybe they just didn't acclimate the right way and got their systems shocked and only the one managed to pull through.

 

[EntoStentor]

It is possible to breed electric blue or cobalt blue crays with a p. clarkii. Clarkii is almost exculsively red, and a hybrid will be almost the exact same color as yours, which is my guess as to how your specimen orginated.

I believe the problems with both your crayfish were caused by incorrect acclimation. If you want them to be healthy, you must drip acclimate all invertebrates. Crayfish can survive without water for a long time by using a thin, oxygen-rich water film over their gills. That is how the gills work when you take them out of water. However, when you plop them right into your aquarium (this is not how a crayfish would re-enter the water naturally, instead stepping slowly down the bank of the river and gradually giving its gills the chance to re-acclimate to water), the crayfish suffers oxygen shock because its gills are not yet used to the lower-oxygen water. The film over its gills is also rather alkaline due to secretions by the mouthparts. So the crayfish, improperly acclimated, suffers both an intense oxygen shock and a pH shock, the latter being the reason why your crayfish rolled over, and the former being why it was unable to get back up.

Both of these can be avoided simply by drip acclimating, which is recommended for any and all invertebrates.