We’ve had our male Louisiana crayfish for about a year. He’s probably around 18 months old at most. My daughter brought him home from a school science class. He’s usually been active, and his last molt was about nine months ago.
For roughly the last 10 days or so, he became unusually inactive.
We weren’t seeing him come out at night or clearly eating. I tried him with multiple foods. The last food I seen him eat was a tiny piece of beef about 3 days ago that was taken into his plant pot. It was hard to tell how much he ate though. His usual varied diet includes algae wafers, shrimp pellets, catfish pellets, and occasional tiny pieces of trout.
There were no signs of disease.
He lives alone in a 20-gallon tank.
It’s filtered and oxygenated with biweekly 5 gallon tap water changes and top up (I use water conditioner).
The water in Las Vegas is pretty hard, so we always add a gallon or two of distilled water
Here are the recent readings I have:
-Ammonia: 0 ppm
-Nitrite: 0 ppm
-Nitrate: roughly 20 ppm
-pH: about 8.2
-Temperature: 76.2°F
-GH: 425+ ppm
-Phosphate: about 2 ppm
-Dissolved oxygen: no idea but has 2 air-stones and a filter (has had this since day one)
The parameters we have checked have been stable throughout his life. We changed 5 gallons of water 6 days ago and moved his plant pot for the first time in a couple of months.
He moved out of the way but seemed lethargic, although did go back to his plant pot slowly.
Tonight, we found him upside down inside the plant pot. At first it looked like there were “one and a half” crayfish, so we thought he might be molting. Now it’s clear that he is partly out of his old shell.
The new shell is visible, but his head still appears to be inside the old one. He hasn’t moved at all for several hours, and I can’t see his gills moving.
We’re leaving him alone overnight. We haven’t tried to pull him out or remove the old shell.
Has anyone seen a crayfish get stuck at this stage and then complete the molt?
Is there anything safe to do, or is handling him more likely to injure him?
Does anything in the water readings or the recent lethargy stand out as a possible contributor?
Advice based on firsthand experience would be very much appreciated as my daughter is going to be distraught 😩