Crayfish turn lobster red and die...

[sly2kusa]

I'm hoping somebody out here has some knowledge of Crayfish/Crawdaddies. I have had about a dozen or so in my Muskie tank, and lately I have had a couple that started to grow - started to turn more of a lobster red color, and then just mysteriously died.

Any ideas on what common crayfish diseases are? I did a search already, but could only find very broad analysis about the subject.

Thanks to any and all in advance...

 

[Oddball]

It's probably not disease. Do you add iodine to your water? Crays need iodine to facilitate their molts. They also need a calcium supplement since their new carapace will be larger and need additional calcium to form properly.
a couple of drops of regular medicine cabinet iodine per 100 gals per week is all it takes to help provide successful molts. Also, crays prefer privacy when molting so, provide enough caves and overhangs to allow, at least, 1 space per cray.

 

[sly2kusa]

It's probably not disease. Do you add iodine to your water? Crays need iodine to facilitate their molts. They also need a calcium supplement since their new carapace will be larger and need additional calcium to form properly.
a couple of drops of regular medicine cabinet iodine per 100 gals per week is all it takes to help provide successful molts. Also, crays prefer privacy when molting so, provide enough caves and overhangs to allow, at least, 1 space per cray.

Thank you Odd - I will get on it!

P.S. Some have passed in areas of the tank that are not easy to get to. Any dangers in letting them decay? The others seem to peck away at the dead ones.

 

[Oddball]

The decomposing fleshy parts will cause an ammonia spike. On a small tank, this could be dangerous. Keep up on the water changes. And, if the other crays don't consume the dead cray's exoskeleton, the decomposing shell will affect your pH a bit. If you're dealing with dwarf crays, there's not much danger. There could be a problem with larger crays such as P. clarkii and Cherax sp.

 

[sly2kusa]

The decomposing fleshy parts will cause an ammonia spike. On a small tank, this could be dangerous. Keep up on the water changes. And, if the other crays don't consume the dead cray's exoskeleton, the decomposing shell will affect your pH a bit. If you're dealing with dwarf crays, there's not much danger. There could be a problem with larger crays such as P. clarkii and Cherax sp.

Yeah these guys are smaller than your finger type sized buggers.

Thank you very much Oddball for all the tips!