Crayfish identification

We recently picked up a crayfish at a local pet shop, and we're curious
about what species it might be. The pet store owner didn't know, but
said that it came from a goldfish breeding pond in Arkansas. The top
of the carapace is grey-greenish. The lighter parts of the carapace,
especially the sides, have a lavender tint. The abdomen is faintly
striped. The entire body is covered in small black freckles. The
pincers range from greenish with black freckles on the top, to rather
bright orange with whitish studs on the bottom. The pincers are very
long and narrow, especially the base, which is at least as long as the
"fingers". The "arms" are blue-green with white to orange studs.
Overall, it's rather plain looking except for the bright orange on the
undersides of the pincers, and the lavender tint.

I will post a few pictures at http://www.neuro.mcw.edu/~bacon/Crayfish
shortly.

TIA,

Jason

More then likely it is one of two.

Procambarus clarkii

Procambarus acutus acutus ¤

"outpaddling" wrote in message
oups.com...
We recently picked up a crayfish at a local pet shop, and we're curious
about what species it might be. The pet store owner didn't know, but
said that it came from a goldfish breeding pond in Arkansas. The top
of the carapace is grey-greenish. The lighter parts of the carapace,
especially the sides, have a lavender tint. The abdomen is faintly
striped. The entire body is covered in small black freckles. The
pincers range from greenish with black freckles on the top, to rather
bright orange with whitish studs on the bottom. The pincers are very
long and narrow, especially the base, which is at least as long as the
"fingers". The "arms" are blue-green with white to orange studs.
Overall, it's rather plain looking except for the bright orange on the
undersides of the pincers, and the lavender tint.

I will post a few pictures at http://www.neuro.mcw.edu/~bacon/Crayfish
shortly.

TIA,

Jason

Thanks for the feedback. I checked out both of these species on Google
images, and neither looks quite like the crayfish we have. The basic
morphology of procambarus acutus acutus is similar, but the colors are
not. Does the coloring vary widely in this species? Any other
possibilities?

BTW, I finally got the images up at
http://www.neuro.mcw.edu/~bacon/Crayfish. Sorry for the delay - we had
a power outage Thursday night.

Thanks,

JB

CanadianCray wrote:
More then likely it is one of two.

Procambarus clarkii

Procambarus acutus acutus ¤

"outpaddling" wrote in message
oups.com...
We recently picked up a crayfish at a local pet shop, and we're curious
about what species it might be. The pet store owner didn't know, but
said that it came from a goldfish breeding pond in Arkansas. The top
of the carapace is grey-greenish. The lighter parts of the carapace,
especially the sides, have a lavender tint. The abdomen is faintly
striped. The entire body is covered in small black freckles. The
pincers range from greenish with black freckles on the top, to rather
bright orange with whitish studs on the bottom. The pincers are very
long and narrow, especially the base, which is at least as long as the
"fingers". The "arms" are blue-green with white to orange studs.
Overall, it's rather plain looking except for the bright orange on the
undersides of the pincers, and the lavender tint.

I will post a few pictures at http://www.neuro.mcw.edu/~bacon/Crayfish
shortly.

TIA,

Jason

JB,

They can vary from a light-medium green (khaki-army) to very dark,
almost black, the ones that we see down here. The lighter green ones
seems to have a thinner shell, the dark/black ones seem to have thicker
shells. If we get allot of rain crayfish can be plentiful, they will
crawl up to the roadways, you might find them in the yard, driveway or
garage, etc.
The other day a lady came in the store, she mentioned that the neighbor
found one in the garage, a female with 200+ eggs at her underside
(probably the tail). They bought a tank and put her in, the babies
hatched (?) they are all over. The customer that told me about them
just so happens her & her husband own a crayfish pond. Well it seems
the neighbor wants to keep the crayfish, amazed at the babies, etc. I
said well maybe she'll get a bigger tank or dig a pond...
What are you feeding your crayfish?? The lady came in to get food for
the crayfish, I believe bloodworms...

Kerry
s.e. LA

Crayfish eat mostly rotting plants etc. in the wild. A good shrimp pellet
works nice with some frozen or fresh veggies every now & again. They go nuts
for peas.


"ko57" wrote in message
oups.com...
JB,

They can vary from a light-medium green (khaki-army) to very dark,
almost black, the ones that we see down here. The lighter green ones
seems to have a thinner shell, the dark/black ones seem to have thicker
shells. If we get allot of rain crayfish can be plentiful, they will
crawl up to the roadways, you might find them in the yard, driveway or
garage, etc.
The other day a lady came in the store, she mentioned that the neighbor
found one in the garage, a female with 200+ eggs at her underside
(probably the tail). They bought a tank and put her in, the babies
hatched (?) they are all over. The customer that told me about them
just so happens her & her husband own a crayfish pond. Well it seems
the neighbor wants to keep the crayfish, amazed at the babies, etc. I
said well maybe she'll get a bigger tank or dig a pond...
What are you feeding your crayfish?? The lady came in to get food for
the crayfish, I believe bloodworms...

Kerry
s.e. LA

ko57 wrote:
JB,

They can vary from a light-medium green (khaki-army) to very dark,
almost black, the ones that we see down here. The lighter green ones
seems to have a thinner shell, the dark/black ones seem to have thicker
shells. If we get allot of rain crayfish can be plentiful, they will
crawl up to the roadways, you might find them in the yard, driveway or
garage, etc.
The other day a lady came in the store, she mentioned that the neighbor
found one in the garage, a female with 200+ eggs at her underside
(probably the tail). They bought a tank and put her in, the babies
hatched (?) they are all over. The customer that told me about them
just so happens her & her husband own a crayfish pond. Well it seems
the neighbor wants to keep the crayfish, amazed at the babies, etc. I
said well maybe she'll get a bigger tank or dig a pond...
What are you feeding your crayfish?? The lady came in to get food for
the crayfish, I believe bloodworms...

Kerry
s.e. LA

Hi Kerry,

Thanks for the info. I assume you're referring to acutus acutus. Do
you know if they have a common name? I found that P. Acutus is known
as the White River Crayfish, but I couldn't find a name for P.
Acutus^2.

He eats mostly elodea, and an occasional shrimp pellet, frozen pea, or
piece of cat food. The crayfish love cat food - the problem is, only
about 1/3 of them sink immediately, so they're not much fun to feed
with.

He's a very interesting little critter - very active. He shares a 20L
tank with a rather large Northern Crayfish (Orconectes Virulus) we
caught in a local pond. ( Milwaukee area ) The northern was active
during the summer, when the water was around 90 degrees, but now that
it's around 68 he just sits in his cave all day long. :-(

Thanks again,

Jason

It is the White River Cray. The correct scientific name is Procambarus
acutus acutus. It just gets shortened sometimes. They will go crazy over cat
food & other such things. The only problem is it tends to dirty the water.

"outpaddling" wrote in message
ups.com...

ko57 wrote:
JB,

They can vary from a light-medium green (khaki-army) to very dark,
almost black, the ones that we see down here. The lighter green ones
seems to have a thinner shell, the dark/black ones seem to have thicker
shells. If we get allot of rain crayfish can be plentiful, they will
crawl up to the roadways, you might find them in the yard, driveway or
garage, etc.
The other day a lady came in the store, she mentioned that the neighbor
found one in the garage, a female with 200+ eggs at her underside
(probably the tail). They bought a tank and put her in, the babies
hatched (?) they are all over. The customer that told me about them
just so happens her & her husband own a crayfish pond. Well it seems
the neighbor wants to keep the crayfish, amazed at the babies, etc. I
said well maybe she'll get a bigger tank or dig a pond...
What are you feeding your crayfish?? The lady came in to get food for
the crayfish, I believe bloodworms...

Kerry
s.e. LA

Hi Kerry,

Thanks for the info. I assume you're referring to acutus acutus. Do
you know if they have a common name? I found that P. Acutus is known
as the White River Crayfish, but I couldn't find a name for P.
Acutus^2.

He eats mostly elodea, and an occasional shrimp pellet, frozen pea, or
piece of cat food. The crayfish love cat food - the problem is, only
about 1/3 of them sink immediately, so they're not much fun to feed
with.

He's a very interesting little critter - very active. He shares a 20L
tank with a rather large Northern Crayfish (Orconectes Virulus) we
caught in a local pond. ( Milwaukee area ) The northern was active
during the summer, when the water was around 90 degrees, but now that
it's around 68 he just sits in his cave all day long. :-(

Thanks again,

Jason