bluecrayfish.com

I have a pair of crays that I bred last year that I recently reintroduced to one another. The male although he is in form I paid this female no attention even though she seemed interested in him. When he would approach her she would go stiff like she was volunteering herself for breeding. He still paid her no attention. I added a younger female which is one of their offspring and the male immediately bred her. A couple weeks later I tried again with the exact same results using a different young female.

Any idea why he would ignor the older female? Do the females have to be in a certain form or condition to breed? I was thinking since she is from the wild, she may need to complete a winter cycle before she can breed. Any thoughts on that?

The female has to be ready to breed as well.

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Why do you think the older female would not be ready and the younger ones would? This a picture of the second young female seconds after being put in with the male.

I guess crays do pretty well in captivity because the young ones are all larger than the wild caught parents.

"Being ready" is a personal thing. There are times when a whole colonies (non crays) can experience the same degree of rediness, but mostly with crays it's individual. And you say she's older?

I'd just watch her and wait for the glare glands on the tail to show, then introduce her to the male, under supervision.

Remember, when it comes to breeding, it's not always an exacting science.

Well, that can be said as true, in general with crays.