Dwarf Orange Crayfish (CPO)

Cambarellus patzcuarensis sp. Orange (a.k.a. CPOs)

I purchased one a month ago from my local fish store, after much debate. 

The store owner told me they could be aggressive and territorial towards small shrimp, nano fish and each other. He said I could keep ONE by itself in a FIVE gallon. Well all of that was quite off putting. I love the look and behavior of these little critters but there was no way I could justify running a five gallon just for a tiny crayfish about an inch long.

Close-up of a Dwarf Orange Crayfish

But I'm an impulsive buyer. Which is bad. (Don't buy fish impulsively!)

I did some research online and read about several people who kept them with red cherries without any issues. So I figured, why not? I already had a 2.5 gallon red cherry tank set up. I bought a CPO for $10 at my local fish store and giddily brought him home.

The next morning, a cherry was dead.

Who was the culprit? Ammonia spike? New tank syndrome? Or the newest addition to the colony - the CPO?

I couldn't risk it. If it was the CPO, I couldn't have him kill off my cherries one by one in the night. So I moved him.

I didn't have another tank available, but I did have a vase. Would it work? It was about 0.75 gallons. I had some fertilizing substrate and a ton of hygrophila that needed a haircut. CPOs don't need heaters, and the plants would act as biological filtration. Since I wasn't going to feed him much there would be no ammonia spikes or anything but to be sure, I would also add some bacteria supplementation every few days. 

Hygrophila Polysperma grows like a weed

So I did it. I trimmed off about 6 healthy tall stems of hygro, threw it into the vase along with some little twigs of driftwood and then plopped Mr. Cray in there. And he was happy. 

I changed about 15% of the water weekly. 

For a few weeks, he would climb from leaf to leaf and eventually settle near the top with his little pincers held out, waiting for his daily meal (fish flakes or bloodworms). It was beyond cute. He was a little orange adventurer in a hygro forest that he had all to himself. 

And the fish store owner said he needed at least 5 gallons. Pah! It is my honest opinion that any container can be a fish tank as long as it's robustly planted from the start with fast growing stem plants like hygro. Within a week the hygro was growing so well (the vase was placed under my plant gro lights) it quickly shot out of the water and became emmersed growth. 

All was well. 

Until one day I woke up and couldn't find Mr. Cray anywhere. I thought he was just hiding. But the next day I checked again and still couldn't find him in the vase...That was when I checked the nearby surroundings and realized he'd crawled out of the vase, dried up...and died. :'( I'd grown so attached to the little crayfish I cried. I was pissy all week. How could I have been stupid? Why did I fill up the water level so high on an open top flared vase?

This is what he looked like after he crawled out and dried up.
Not my photo but it was exactly the same.

I couldn't even bear to extract him from the corner of my terrarium where he'd dried out in an upright position among some moss. It looked like he was a toy. But after a few minutes, I mustered up some courage, scooped him up with a net and buried him in my backyard where all my dead fishies go. 

For a long time I thought about buying another CPO. But everytime I considered the idea, the image of Mr. Cray, dried up, came to mind and I shuddered.

But yesterday, while visiting my LFS, I couldn't resist. So I purchased another CPO. This one is a female (smaller pincers) and shall be named Ms. Cray. 

I put her in a 1 gallon fish bowl filled with hygro and subwassertang moss. So far, she is doing well! Fingers crossed. And of course, the water level is much lower this time. But I doubt she could crawl out of the bowl because it has a slight bottleneck at the top. 

Subwassertang Moss (commonly used for fry, breeding)

TGIF!
Chesmok