Fun+Facts+about+Crayfish

​  Someone who studies crayfish (and some other fish) is called a Hydrogeologist.

The most common crayfish gets 3-4 inches long, but they can get much bigger in the wild in deep lakes.

 Crayfish eat fish, shrimp, water plants, worms, insects, snails, plankton, and more

Crayfish is a freshwater variant of the lobster

 Crayfish walk forward; they move backward only when swimming with their abdomen movements. Still, swimming backward is much more rapid.

These crustaceans have a good eyesight and, like other related species, they can move their eyes independently from one another.

Crayfish molt at the end of June. They usually eat their old skeleton in order to recover the calcium and phosphates contained in it.

Adult size is reached by crayfish in the wild in about 4 years. They can live from 20 to 30 years.

If crayfish lose a leg or claw. This is no problem, as they will slowly grow back.

__LIFE CYCLE OF A CRAYFISH __

After being layed, eggs hatch in three to six weeks. A female can lay anywhere from 80 to 575 eggs. Once hatched, the young will continue to cling to the female’s tail section for further protection until they are large enough to be on their own. When the young become about 1 3/8 inches long they have reached maturity. The maximum total length is about four inches. Once maturity has been reached growth slows down considerably.