I just recently purchased a cray labeled a "rainbow lobster" from a lfs. This lfs breed their "blue lobsters" and has infertile whites, as well as zebras and all kinds of shrimp so the owner seems to know his stuff. Any idea what the actual species is? I know pics will settle this but its a juvenile and the colors dont match anything I've searched that matches this nomber (no blue legs)..... Any adive will help, will post pics once I take with a good camera. PS I paid 12.00 for it.
rainbow lobster
- Thread starter dpsurf
- Start date
It'll be easier to decide when you post pictures. Though juveniles are still particularly difficult to ID. But claw shape, areola, etc will help narrow down a genus.
Off hand though, the only rainbow lobster I know is Cherax sp. Rainbow. The other variants of this species have different selling names.
Off hand though, the only rainbow lobster I know is Cherax sp. Rainbow. The other variants of this species have different selling names.
Yeah, the legs just aren't showing any bright blue which is, from what I've seen, a major characteristic of "rainbows." Then there is all the other crays from that region of the world ("hoa creek" etc) with similar colorings. I suppose we shall see when my little guy/girl reaches maturity. The LFS guy told me they get around 5-6". PS the LFS had a white alleni (black eyes, not albino) and told me the distributor "makes them all infertile" so as to prevent the LFS from breeding (as he does w other species). anyone else have any experience with infertile whites?
dpsurf;2958415; said:
Yea, but the bright blue doesn't always show up well in them at a young age. I have one that just now developed the blue legs after it's most recent molt. However, it still could be any other of the variants (like you said, the hoas).
But 5-6" is definitely the right size range for most Indo species.
And white P. alleni with black eyes are still albino. Because of the structuring of the eyes in decapods, the red coloration you'd normally see doesn't exist. You see it in the eye shine of them as a "white" glare instead of the normal "orange-red" glare in normal crayfish. But that aside, white P. alleni are notoriously difficult to breed because they are usually very inbred. Making them have smaller berries with very few succesful hatchlings. For example, a normal berried P. alleni might have 200-300 hatchlings from a berry but a berried white P. alleni may only have 10 or 15 and the rest of the eggs are infertile. I've never had nor seen large numbers produced by them. But they are capable of breeding and producing offspring, it's just a lot more difficult and time consuming.
dpsurf;2958564; said:
Gee, that really kind of looks like a Cherax quad in those pictures... which is an Aussie species and not an Indo. And it gets a heck of a lot bigger lol
Post more pics when you get a chance, I'd like to see what you've really got
If it's a quad, it's a great species (not that the Indos wouldn't have been). They're really awesome crayfish to own... I have a bunch of them, heh. ^_^