Problems with Orange Dwarf crays

[milalic]

Hi there. I keep various of these crays and have been baffled by something that has occured lately to two of the small males.

I have two females that are adult size crays. The are larger than some of the males. I had some very small males that in general were around half the size of the female. Like two weeks ago I saw one of them having sex with this big female. That same day I found the cray dead later that night.

Well, today it has happened again. Another small male had sex with the female and now it is in a corner almost dead. I am pretty sure he is going to die. I grab the poor guy with a net and look at it. It does not seem to have any lacerations or missing limbs. Any ideas what might have happened? Maybe this male was not mature enough?

Tank parameters:
PH: 7.2
GH: 6dh
KH: 3dh
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate : 5ppm
Temp: 75F.


Thanks,
Pedro

[Moses703]

I don't know how sensitive your cray is, but

it appears to me that the problem is your water not been cycled.

You have 0ppm of nitrate, that tells me that it is not biologically cycled.

I personally had the same experience with CRS.

I put them in cleanest water I could get, which never cycled

(0dgh,3dkh,0ammonia,0nitratea and nitrate and so on) and

lost many high grade CRS. They worth $475 together.(one hinomaru and

10S grades and couple A grades)