bluecrayfish.com

hi ive had a female blue clarkii for about 8 months, wednesday i bought a younger male blue clarkii, that i would say is probably about 6 months old, worried that they would fight over territory i also bought another tank. well when i put him in the tank i had the net ready just to make sure nobody got hurt but when they got to each other she just wanted to mate. she kept getting in postion to mate but he acted like he didnt want any part of it. they layed off each other for a few hours so we went to bed ever since the morning we woke up she has just been hiding and not eating at all! shes been in her little spot for 3 days straight and just yesterday she started walking around but when they found each other again she came by his "spot" and he attacked! all she did was curl up EVERYTHING so i pulled him out and put him in another tank. Now this whole time she hasnt molted in a good month maybe month and a half so im thinking shes in the process of just another molt but its never taken 4 days. i know her claws look a little fatter with the "joint" areas actually turning white like normal when she molts but again shes usually molted in a single day or two of acting weird. my biggest concern is she hasnt eaten anything for the last 4 days. so im hoping someone can give me some information please on what may be going on. i bought the male so we can breed them and i was excited the first day cause thats all she wanted to do! but now im worried that something could be wrong with her. there are no signs of injury they both have all limbs.

From my limited experience, I would say she is going to moult. It will be fine for her even not eating for a week. Therefore, Don't worry. For the male, I guess he is not in the right form. Breeding form. You need to wait for his next moult. After that you may try to breed them again. Some occations, even they are in the right form , they may refuse to mate too.. Remember to keep an eye on them during the mating. After a successful mating. you can seperate them to avoid be eaten up either party.!!
Play safe!!

My 2cents only!

Hello,

I'd also like to throw out my thoughts / opinion about your situation, as well.

First thought is, are you sure you have 2 blue clarkii? In my experience, blue allenii are more commonly found for sale in shops. It could be a possibility that you may be trying to mate 2 separate species (allenii X clarkii), which would make things a bit more difficult / unpredictable. They're pretty tricky to tell apart if you're not sure exactly where to look.

Second thought goes right along with Minicooper - if they are both indeed clarkii, the male may not be in breeding form. **Usually,** (meaning NOT 100% of the time, but at least like 90% of the time), males who are in breeding form are more than happy to get down to business upon introduction to a female... like immediately! A non-breeding form male is a lot more nasty toward females, IME. That could explain the attack. Another thought might be that the male is not mature enough for mating yet.

One last thought, based on your comments about the females behavior, is that they may have mated and the female may be in that pre-egg producing phase. The behavior you describe about your female sounds very typical of a female who is about to produce eggs. It will be impossible to know if they've mated unless you witnessed it... that is, until the female develops a tail full of eggs!

This doesn't do much to answer any of your concerns difinitively, but it might give you a few possibilities about what's going on. I think your best bet right now is to do exactly what you did - separate them, and wait it out. Wait for the male to moult, and allow the female time to develop eggs if she is going to. If nothing happens with the female, wait till the male moults and try introducing them again, under direct supervision, since they have a history of fighting already.

Good luck!

Redgoalie welcome back! im Palleni1331 i was waiting for your return! u have a lovely looking cray as your avatar! is it a p.alleni?

also i agree with Redgoalie u might have bought a blue alleni
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=990

here u go look at the aerola (sp?) this is one of the main ways of telling if u have a clarkii or an alleni

Happy to be back!

About the avatar - Yes, that's a male, blue, p. allenii.

cool! i had a purple and blue p.alleni but it died! rip assassin but in august im getting a new one (thank god for bieng 14 and getting b-day money!)

( )) CRAYOLA () ))>