Breeding Australian red claw in tanks

[ScubaTron]

If anyone was wondering or interested in whether this was possible as I've read in a few places that it couldn't be done or was very difficult.... On the contrary, it was quite easy. Although I did battle a bit at the start with high nitrites, it's all under control now and i have a separate 2ft x 1ft tank setup with 2 females loaded with eggs. 

This is the first time I've kept this many crayfish. In total I have 25, but soon that will change once the eggs hatch ?

I'll be uploading a YouTube video shortly showing the eggs that are just about to hatch on one of the females. 

[ScubaTron]

Here is the video:

 

Edited November 7, 2016 by ScubaTron
Spelling error.

[revolutionhope]

They are beautiful.. Well done!! How do you manage the cannibalism/aggression?

[ScubaTron]

10 minutes ago, revolutionhope said:

They are beautiful.. Well done!! How do you manage the cannibalism/aggression?

Thanks. I found that providing them with more then adequate hiding spaces and also feeding them enough helped. That small aquarium in this post is only for my females that have eggs. I keep all the other in a much larger tub and in there they have about 40-50 small pieces of PVC tube for about 25 crays, plus driftwood and plants. Here in Malaysia they have what's called ikan bilis, which are very small dried sardines and make the perfect food for them which they love. So I feed them up large with these and do very regular tank cleans. But when it comes down to it, if they're gonna fight and attach each other, then not much you can do apart from getting bigger environment or less crays. I would like to increase the size naturally...haha. I'm sure all aquarium enthusiasts are always in favour of going bigger rather than downsizing!

[revolutionhope]

Hey@ScubaTron how are the redclaw doing for you?

[emoji173][emoji111][emoji445]
will

[waffle]

Also keen for an update :)

[ScubaTron]

Hi. Unfortunately I no longer have the set up. But I did have it long enough to know that it was working very well. The reason I stopped was cause I moved back to NZ from Malaysia. 

Maybe I will start up again over here when I have a bit more space. But I found this kind of setup worked quite well for me and was not expensive at all to set up.

I built the pressurised canister filters myself from plastic tubs & PVC pipe. Then used standard filter media to fill them up.

I had 4 females and 1 male most of the time in the smaller blue tub so they could mate in peace away from the chaos of the main tank. Then once the females had eggs I would shift them to the glass aquarium. After 3 females had eggs I had over 200 crays which most survived and I sold. I simply didn't have anywhere to keep that many as they grew up quite fast.

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2017 by ScubaTron
Update with pics

[waffle]

Nice setup, thanks for the updates! I hope you get a chance to revamp your breeding program some time!