Cray Fish - Anyone interested?

[Kazzy]

Hey everyone! Wanted to shoot this idea out there.
I've recently required some Marbled Cray Fish. These things are pretty weird! They stay fairly small (my biggest being about 4-5 inches) but pretty robust. Here's why these things are just weird: They reproduce by cloning themselves. This is the only known species of cray fish to do this, and one of the few species of animals to do it. They have no known natural origin. They were first discovered in a German pet shop. Odd, huh? Well, I've got about 16 of them, 3 of which with eggs. Soon enough I'll be crawling with them!

So, here's my idea. I'm thinking about selling these for reptile and fish food, also as bait for those that like to fish. They will be humanly killed then frozen to prevent any being released into the wild (these things take over in no time and are very destructive...). My question is, would anyone here be interested in buying once I get it going? Probably won't be for a few months or so. I also haven't decided on the pricing, but will most likely be pricing according to the weight of the cray. I'll post that once I figure it out.

 

[Guest]

Crawdads ..As kids we would turn the rocks in the river to catch crawdads .If one was to plan ahead and put your had behind the rock a few inches [crawdads shoot backwards when disturbed] you could catch all you could carry in a short time [It was grand fun in the summer too ] ...There were wire baskets that were traps that were used by those that would use them for food or fish bait ...I remember my folks cooked up a mess once [a feat never to be repeated]they were like fondue way to much bother .. I once caught one that must of been eight inches long . Huge for a crawdad [big as a rat ] He was kept in a fish tank at school all winter and later in my room for a few months . He was feed worms and I would take him out and [poke at him ] from time to time .. He was released back into the creek after maybe a year ..I would like to see some pictures of your crayfish ....

 

[thomasjg23]

I actually spent a few semesters studying crawdads in college, definitely took me back to my younger years. If you would be interested in selling a live one I'm sure the university would love to study it.

 

[Guest]

Fosters and smith has blue ones white ones black ones and the regular creek daddies .. You will find them under fresh water inverts ...

 

[Kazzy]

I'll try to get pics of that particular species, but here is the other kind I have. It's so far unidentified, but looks to be a Procambarus sp.

This is a male and female pair, but too young to really start breeding. Once the male is in breeding form I should be able to get them identified.

Montana, I believe he's wanting this particular species to study since they are 'cloning' animals (parthenogenetic). I'll try to get some pics of them later. For the most part the younger ones are out and about while the bigger, older ones stay hidden and I don't want to get them out while they are carrying eggs.

 

[Guest]

It looks just like Crickus Crawdadus ... I wonder if all female crayfish if given the chance in isolation would go hermaphrodite .Snakes do it and so do plants ..

 

[Guest]

i would buy some i see wuite a few people feeding them to there lizards.seems like a good source of food

 

[Kazzy]

There have been some studies on some different species of cray fish. Seems one species, I believe P. Clarkii, has exhibited cloning abilities.

Thanks frost! Yes, it's on the food item list for tegus. Turtles love them too!

 

[Guest]

If its a cloning population [hermaphrodites] then there would be no males in the whole population .. Snails supposedly can be of both sexes too Are all snails clones ?? All life must at one time been hermaphrodites as what came first the chicken or the egg ...So where did males come from ???

 

[Kazzy]

The P. Clarkii are not considered hermaphrodites as there are both males and females in the population, but apparently someone has seen a female reproduce without being in contact with a male.

Some snails are hermaphrodites. I have two species of snails, pond snails and mystery snails. Pond snails are hermaphrodites, whereas mystery snails are not.

 

[Guest]

I looked up P.Clarkii and they are a different looking crayfish ..Very prolific no known origin .. Interesting !!

 

[Kazzy]

Yup! Here's another interesting fact about crays:
American native crays carry what is known as the Cray Fish Plague. Other cray fish from around the world cannot live through it. If you have, for example, a P. Clarkii and a C. quadricarinatus (Australian Red Claw), you would have to use two different tank, water siphons, buckets, etc. etc. or you risk spreading it to your C. quadricarinatus and killing him/her

 

[Kazzy]

Here's some pics of the marbled crays. These are all babies, the big female and the two medium sized ones hide VERY well, and they all have eggs so don't want to disturb them. Please note they are not naturally blue, it is from something missing from the water/diet and it is being corrected.

 

[Kazzy]

Alright, one of the cray's eggs hatched last night, and I have several more reaching 'breeding' size.

Hopefully in a few months I'll have a large enough colony to start offering some for sale. Let me know if you will be interested. These will not be sold live! Sorry, but this is to make sure there is absolutely NO risk of them getting introduced into the wild as they are a highly invasive and destructive species. They will be prekilled and then frozen. They are fed a high protein diet and veggies.

These can be fed to tegus, along with other lizard species like monitors. I'd avoid feeding them to smaller lizard species as most have a hard time digesting chitin. Turtles love them as well, and so do fish! I feed them to my rainbow shiners (a type of large minnow). They'll also make good bait for fishing. I advise against you eating them though...lol! They are not FDA approved for human consumption.

As soon as the big one's eggs hatch out, I'll get a picture of her. She's pretty big, about 4" and very thick. The babies are born at about the size of a pinhead cricket.

 

[Guest]

Komodo Dragons, of all things can reproduce that way ..

It`s called Parthenogenesis ..

A female can lay fertile eggs With no male interaction ..

All offspring are thought to be female ...

There are males of the species ..

 

[Draco D Tegu]

You know I read about that too (the komodo dragon) but both articles I read never disclosed if the mothers were captive born or were wild specimens. Which makes me wonder if the females hadn't been sperm storing. Some species can spermstore for years. Be interested to find out!

 

[Guest]

I raise wild turkeys [or did ] .

A wild turkey can set a clutch of twenty eggs .

Raise the chicks up lay another clutch and hatch them too after only being bred once in the spring ...

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Well that would make sense since birds are related to reptiles in a convoluted fashion. I'll see what I can find out.