# My unusually fast growing Australian Red Clawed Crayfish



## Colin

Back in August I bought some Australian Red Clawed Crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) from Captured Moments for myself and some friends.

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/fres...icarinatus-australian-red-claw-crayfish-4896/

I have 3 left now, although one of them is an absolute monster compared to when I brought it home 2 months ago. I'm looking forward to seeing how big this cray gets. The other two are maybe 1/4 of the size. They'll be in new homes soon. I love watching crays rearranging every last pebble and piece of wood in search of food.

Here's a pic of the night I brought the crays home; August 24, 2010. Note the bottlecap for size reference:









Here's a couple pics that I took a couple nights ago of the fast-growing cray; October 28, 2010. It peels strips of driftwood of with it's mouth and during feeding time it does fast laps around the tank. 


















O_O


----------



## effox

Holy crap that got big.


----------



## eternity302

Are you sure no steroids were fed? =)


----------



## Colin

Lol... I was thinking some human growth hormones might have been slipped into it's food. I''ve fed the crays Omega One flake food, shrimp pellets, crab bites, and hikari algae wafers. I think it's eaten a couple crays and I know I've seen it chew right through Malaysian trumpet snails. The tanks used to be nearly overrun by them and there aren't many to be seen now...


----------



## neven

That's insane! i'd hate to see what the monster would do to a planted tank


----------



## Colin

You can. That tank used to have java fern, hygrophila, and a couple others I can't remember the name of


----------



## 2wheelsx2

With that monster in there I am surprised to see that neon still


----------



## Captured Moments

Wow! It has grown a lot. I kept only 2 from that batch. One escaped never to be found, and the other crawled into my cherry shrimp tank. I found it a few days later when I was feeding my cherry shrimps.
Yours sure has grown fast.
Now that same female is berried again and the babies are already moving under the belly (same male again).

They will eat all the plants no matter what kind. I keep all mine in a 60 gal tank with no plants and I have some feeder goldfish in there as well. They don't even try to catch or eat them. They just pass right in front of them and nothing happen.


----------



## Colin

Yeah, I remember my old electric blue cray ate almost every type of plant I'd put in it's tank. These australian red claws enjoy eating ANY type of plant they can get. That doesn't bug me as I just put cuttings and runners from my planted tank in there. This morning I noticed a small pile of tooth-pick sized strips of wood that the cray tears off my various driftwood. By the way it's colours have darkened again the last few days and it appears thicker, I'd guess it's due to moult again within the week. 

I haven't had an escapee yet, but I'm waiting for it. I used to keep killiefish and they were notorious for finding the smallest opening and jumping through it. I haven't lost any fish to them yet, but they do try to grab the fish if they swim too close. I know if a cray did ever grab a hold of a fish, it will eat it. It tried going after my hand last night when I was cleaning the canister filter intake to the point where I had to chase it away with a long plant tool... O_O


----------



## BigFatLyre

well, you did see the parents!
big enough to........


----------



## Colin

Lol. I've had a few friends ask when they can come over for dinner after seeing this cray. It molted again on monday November 8th. Here's a picture I finally managed to get of it today.

November 12th, 2010.








O_O


----------



## curtisonrad19

That cray is massive! =]


----------



## 1843

Wow, must hurt to grow that fast. How big is the tank? Great looking cray.

I'll have to keep my eye out for when the babies are ready, Captured Moments. I've always wanted a cray, and I have an extra 30 gal just waiting for a new project.


----------



## Colin

possum said:


> Wow, must hurt to grow that fast. How big is the tank? Great looking cray.


The cray is in a 32G with a Fluval 404.

I'm trying to figure out the gender of this cray. From what I can tell comparing pics of it's underside, I think it's a female, but I'm no expert on sexing cray's. From the long narrow claws, my first guess was male. Does anyone have any thoughts?


----------



## skrick

That is a 100% female red claw I know I have a couple of hundred of them


----------



## christhefish

i agree its a female


----------



## Colin

She's moulted at least 2 times since I last posted a pic. The last moult was on July 20, 2011.

I did have a cray escape shortly after my last post. I woke up one morning and was getting ready for work. Typically, when I get out of my bathroom, both my cats are waiting outside the door for me. This particular morning, neither cat was waiting. One was hiding and one was playing with a toy under my dresser. I called the cat playing under the dresser and she ignored me. This wasn't typical, so I went to take a look. I got near my dresser and saw the cat slapping at a decent sized crayfish claw. I figured it was only a matter of time before a cat fished one out and ate it. I went to take it away and realized as soon as I reached for it that there were two large claws and and angry defensive cray behind them (the same beast this thread is about) O_O

The cray looked completely dried out and covered in cat fur and dust, but was still reared up and waving it's claws around. I rinsed it back and forth in the water and dropped her back in her tank and had to run to work. When I got home she was rearranging every last rock as per her usual routine. I had a closer look to see what happened and it was pretty obvious. She climbed up my canister filter intake and got out through a hole in the light/cover. There was a visible trail in the dust behind the tank where she landed and crawled. My place is all hardwood, so you could see the faint traces of dried trail with a flash light right up to where I found her. I measured the distance and the shortest path was 42' from her tank to under my dresser. She has obviously survived and is still a terror. She had the same gold barbs in her tank from when I got her. They all vanished in a 3 day span recently 

Pictures taken on July 22, 2011. Moult occurred July 20, 2011


----------



## Captured Moments

Thanks for sharing. That's cool to see it growing so fast. My alpha male died a few months back so now I have only 3 or 4 males and 2 females who are berried now. The larger female already has the crawlies under her belly and I saw at least 2 babies on the sponge filter today. Soon the rest will follow.


----------



## oakley1984

yours looks to be about the size of the one i have!


----------

