“Arggh!”
“There’s a CRAYFISH in the hallway! And it’s SNAPPING at me!”
It turns out that crayfish are quite the escape artists. One minute, the hall is empty, and I walk into the bedroom searching for my shoes. When I walk out, there the crayfish is, defending its new territory. It’s the female, or what we think of as the female; the larger of the pair.
“Help!”
Prince Valiant picks up the cray, who is enormously irritated and wriggles violently, and returns her to the tank. She floats on the top of the water for a moment, a piece of fluff attached to one of her feelers, before bubbles begin to rise from her body, and she slowly sinks to the bottom. She moves slowly, as if she is getting used to being in the water again. The male promptly attacks her.
“Are they mating or fighting?” I asked. “I thought the big one was the boss.”
“She is,” said the Prince. “That’s why he’s fighting her now, while she’s still dehydrated.”
Aaah, crayfish love. They are now reconciled - at least, they’re both hiding behind their rock again in apparent harmony, and we are keeping a careful eye on them to thwart any further attempts to explore the big dry world outside their tank.
3 Comments
24 March, 2006 at 1:37 am
Could you put a cover on the tank to keep them from jumping out? They might not fare so well if no one was around to rescue them!
24 March, 2006 at 2:01 am
Barbara - there is a cover on there! Glass over the top, and then a wooden cover over that. There must be a tiny gap somewhere which we’ll have to cover. I have no idea how she squeezed out
27 March, 2006 at 12:32 am
Never trust a crayfish, my mother always said. They’re sneaky.
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