The Crayfish Died

Our crayfish flipped upside down and died. It was sort of a sad thing.

The worst part of it was the smell - it managed to pollute the whole fish tank with a nasty fishy stink and half our house by the time I'd found it dead. So it necessitated a major water change for the remaining fish and a ahead-of-schedule fish tank/pump cleaning.

I'm wondering how it happened. Maybe it was just near the end of it's lifespan? They are supposed to live about 2 years and ours was about that age. Maybe I put in too much fish food? I'd dropped a bunch of watercress at the top of the tank for the fish like usual, except perhaps in a slightly larger volume. The fish were really making short work of it, and putting out a ton of poop, which could have overwhelmed the crayfish.

Anyways, it was sort of gross, but we dealt with it and now we just have the surviving 5 fish that were originally meant for a crayfish snack.

Allen.

Crayfish Moulting / Molting

Kathy discovered that our crayfish had shed it's shell the other day - we didn't see the actual moult but we took some pictures of the discarded shell. It freaked us out at first, seeing the ripped open carapace. I mean, we've heard of it before but this is the first time seeing it. I wonder how it gets its claws to pull out of the skinny little arm sections?

Did the fish eat him?

It looks like he's come out of his shell!

The crayfish is supposed to eat it's old shell - this one seems to be doing it over a period of a week or more, not all at once. Right now, it's eaten everything except the old claw shells and about half of the carapace.

After a week, only the old claws and a bit of carapace are left.

Allen.

Our crayfish thinks he's a monkey.

From on high I survey mine domain.

Well he seems to like to climb the vegetation in the tank, anyways.

Btw the vegetation in the tank is just some watercress we stuck into the gravel, and it seems to be taking root.