# My crayfish is holding eggs



## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

I have a 10gallon tank setup with 2 crayfish in them. I guess one turned out to be female and she's now carrying eggs. How long can I expect before the eggs hatch and does anyone have any info or a good website that I could look to for advice? I'm not planning on breeding crayfish but it happened so I'd like to give the little guys their best chance of survival. I don't have another tank that I can put the babies in unfortunately so what are there survival rate living with two juvie crayfish parents? I'm guessing the parents will eat them at some point?


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

What type of crayfish are this?


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

They were labeled as "Red Lobster" in my LFS but as they've grown they seem to have a redish brown body with dark blue limbs. They seem to be pretty common in LFS's that I've been to. I wish I knew the exact species but I can't say for sure.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Sounds like marble crayfish, post a pic so some one can tell u for sure. If is marble cray fish then u will have lots of babies lol they are all females but they dont need a male to have babies


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

lol well if I leave the babies in the tank with the "parents" will they take care of the crowd control and eat the babies? It sounds mean but I just don't have the tank space to raise babies. I could always look into feeding them to my cichlids as well. You have a Malawi tank, would feeding the babies to my Malawi Peacocks/Haps be a bad idea? It could be a source of a treat once in a while for them if it's not.


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## vicdiscus (Mar 19, 2012)

You should take the crayfish out of the tank. The cichlids will eat the babies.


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Yup u can feed them to your fish, if u want to keep the babies u can do it in the same tank just put lots of hidding places like lots of fake plants


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

vicdiscus said:


> You should take the crayfish out of the tank. The cichlids will eat the babies.


The crayfish aren't in my cichlid tank right now.. My question was can I feed the babies to my cichlids. The cichlids would love the treat and it works for crowd control for all the babies the crayfish will most likely have in their lifetime. I may end up getting a bigger crayfish tank eventually but for now, all I have is a 10g for them and I don't want it to get overcrowded.


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## shelby67 (Jun 19, 2011)

I feed the small babies to my Africans! They love them.


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

Awesome! I'm sure the cichlids will love the treat. How long do the crayfish eggs usually take to hatch and what size do you usually feed them to the fish?


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