Self cloning "blue" crayfish?
- Thread starter screaminleeman
- Start date
Sure thing. It will probably still be a month away though. Berry time will be around 20 days and none have berried yet. Will likely get to start it out sometime in November.
ScatMan;4535423; said:i saw your ad, that's what prompted my search.
what's your breeding setup?
how do they do with larger fish (are they predatory/fin-nippers)?
I have a couple dozen in a 40 breeder. When they get prego I move them into small maternaty tanks until the babies drop. That way the little ones can grow with similar sized tank mates. I dont see a lot of parents eating kids but they grow MUCH faster when they don't have to compete for food with larger ones.
I am excited to see the results of the experiment too! Now that we are talking about it I think mine are much more blue after a molt since I moved. I don't usually pay much attention to hardness or ph... I'll have to start!
knifegill;4389512; said:
Mac.;4536140; said:It can't
ScatMan;4536159; said:
Not really. They are identical at a genetic level. The ones in my tank are exactly the same as the original ones found in that german pet store back in the 90's. That is what makes them so unique as a species. There are really only a handfull of creatures on the planet (that we know about) that reproduce via parthenogenesis.
Environmental variables can cause differences though. If one gets more food than another, it will grow faster. Assuming color is partly based on food, and 1 cray eats more of a type of food that promotes blue than another, that cray will show more blue. If one cray is attacked by a fish as a juvenile, it might show a greater distrust of fish than it's siblings. It might spend more time hiding.
If some guy decides to split them up and stick them all in jars with different water hardness, they might each show a different color.
You see the same kind of thing in Identical Twins in humans. They can't both experience exactly the same things at exactly the same times in their development, so their personalities can be very different. Genetically they are identical though.
jartist15;4536903; said:
Basically they are all female, and they push out eggs that do not need to be fertilized by a male. The embryo inside the egg is already growing when they are created.
Because there is no interaction with another member of the species during reproduction to cause genetic change, the offspring will be exactly the same as the parent.
