This is Cray-Cray and overall things have been fine since her little escape scare last year. However since reaching what I think is adult size in August, she hasn't moulted since? It's clear there's some shell rot developing and I'm not sure how to best encourage her to moult.
I have tried to add iodine to the water but all that resulted in is possibly her antennae breaking I had added Florin-I (Brightwell Aquatics from Amazon) to the water for about 2 weeks and they "snapped" off where you can see discolouration now (Pic 1). I've put cuttlebone in there but she doesn't seem interested in it.There's dark spots on the tips of her legs and tail fins - which have been appearing very slowly over last 6 months... (Pic 2) But she has been very lively and eats...
I've checked the water parameters:
- Temp: 78F / ~25.5C (I have a heater, which I've heard is good for encouraging moults)
- Ammonia: <0.25
- pH: ~8.0
- Nitrite: <0.3
- Nitrate: 12.5 (Not sure if 100% accurate, I realised I'm missing the zinc powder in the test kit)
- I think this is all within the safe limits - My local aquarium also tested the water before and said it was fine?
It's clear she needs to moult to remove the potential shell rot, and for her antennae to regrow.
My question is: Is there any thing I can do to encourage her to moult? Also should I perform a salt bath?
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Re: Salt Bath: I've seen this online, but I'm unsure if it safe to do:
1) Grab a set of scales and measure out 35 grams of Aquarium salt.
2) If you don't have micro scales a good teaspoon is around 4.7grams, so 7 nice teaspoons will do.
3) I don't mind what salt you use, personally I prefer pool salt.
4) Throw that in 250ml of boiling water and stir in until dissolved.
5) Then take 750ml of water from your crayfish's tank put it in a 4 litre ice cream container or something similar with high sides.
6) Add the dissolved salt solution to it and stir again.
7) Drop an air stone to keep the water nice an aerated.
8) Set up an alarm clock/timer to 10 minutes.
9) Drop your crayfish in and make sure it can not escape.
10) Go do some maintenance on the tank.
11) Come back and remove your crayfish when the alarm goes off.
12) Repeat every 3 days as needed until next moult or lesions are "bleached out".
Via: monsterfishkeepers.com