Re: NANFA-- Nonindigenous crayfish article

Moontanman_at_aol.com
Tue, 15 Aug 2000 12:50:41 EDT

Some of that seems a little bit over reactive. I've never seen very many
crayfish for sale in petshops much less very many different species. Mostly
all you see is the blue ones and the partially blue which are both the same
species which have been breed for the blue color. I'm not sure of the species
but the very closely resemble the ones that are very common in the wild along
the coast in the South east. Maybe once or twice (in 35 years) I've seen
another species. Even when there is no blue it is still the same south
eastern (probably from Florida) species. This species ranges up the coast in
the South east down to Fla. and quite possibly beyond and around into the
coastal freshwaters of the Gulf. They have a DR. Jeckel and MR. Hyde
personae. For the first year or more of their lives depending on their growth
rates the have small slender pinchers and do well in an aquarium but when
they are old enough or large enough, I'm not sure what the trigger is, they
will molt and instead of the small pinchers they come out with large strong
fish killer claws and start to raise havoc with the aquarium inhabitants. As
long as you keep close watch on them and catch them when they molt that MR.
Hyde transformation they make good aquarium scavengers. Anyway, I haven't
seen the threat cited in the article, most crayfish from more inland habitats
catch and eat this kind very quickly in the aquarium.


Moon

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