How to breed Crayfish the easy way

I have been asked by multiple people how to breed crayfish. It’s actually much easier than you would think! I put together this set of instructions to help even beginners be successful.

These instructions are for the Florida crayfish or Procambarus alleni, but all crayfish have very similar requirements when it comes to breeding.

• I would reccomend that you take the best male and the best female you can find (make sure they are close to the same size) and put them into their own tank. Crawfish typically will only breed if the population is low, an instinct that helps prevent overpopulation in the wild, so more is not better!
• Use a sponge filter or cover the inlet of your filter with a well fitting sponge to prevent babies from being sucked up and subsequently killed.
• Keep the water at about 69-78 degrees
• Feed lots of high quality food such as 100% spirulina crisp, high protein invertebrate pellets, dried green algae, frozen bloodworms and algae wafers.
• After the female is berried (has eggs under her tail) remove the male and keep her in the tank alone. I don’t recommend moving the female as this can stress her out and cause her to drop the eggs.
• After 3-4 weeks, depending on the temperature of the tank and what species of crayfish you have, the eggs will hatch. You can tell they are about to hatch when you can see the baby crays eyes. Be sure to continue to feed the mother well, she will be hungry
• After the eggs hatch the mother will watch over her young for a few days by keeping them under her tail, leading them to food, and standing over them while they eat.
• After you see all or most of the babies are no longer staying under her tail (about 3-7 days after hatching) remove the female as she will start to eat the babies if left in the same tank

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• Make sure the baby crays have lots of hiding spots in the tank and keep them well fed to prevent cannibalism. (All crayfish are highly cannibalistic) The larger the tank you rear them in and the more hiding places that are available, the more babies that are likely to survive.
• The baby crays will all grow at different rates, so you should sort the babies according to size as they grow if you have the tank space to prevent the larger crays from cannibalizing the smaller ones.
• You can feed the babies the same foods as the adults. I crush pellets and flakes into a powder so the food can be easily spread out across the tank preventing fighting over food, which can cause you to lose babies. While recommended, powdering the food isn’t required as the babies can pick apart the larger pieces of food fairly well. Be very careful to not overfeed, as this will negatively affect the water quality and cause a rise in ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and harmful bacteria.
• Daily water changes for the baby crays tank will help to promote faster growth and healthier, more colorful, crayfish.

Have fun!!!!!