# Help! CPO care and breeding



## lemonsoup (Nov 24, 2010)

I saw the female again briefly but I couldnt see if she still had eggs... A bit worried she lost them...  Still if anybody has any advice for general CPO or crayfish care that would be great!


----------



## Ichthyologuest (May 5, 2011)

Crayfish lose eggs frequently, so don't be heartbroken if they don't hatch this time. Did you see them mating before you saw the eggs? Females occasionally produce unfertilized eggs and then eat them. The best way to ensure the babies survival would be to put the gravid mother in her own tank with lots of cover, I use a 5 foot small diameter PVC pipe which is around two dollars and cut it into two to three inch segments. Make sure you use a sponge filter, or put a sponge over the intake of your filter to prevent any baby deaths. She wont eat the babies (for the first week or so anyway) but you should remove her after a few days. You can wait another week or so to move her to her own tank, if she does have eggs they generally take a little less than a month to hatch. You can keep her in your current tank, but you are likely to lose some of the babies to the white clouds. Your moss should do a decent job of keeping them covered but there will be losses. As far as food, the babies will eat whatever the parents eat, just in small amounts. If you haven't seen her shes likely either with eggs or molting, good luck!


----------



## lemonsoup (Nov 24, 2010)

Thanks so much for the tips!! I never saw them mating so maybe the eggs were not fertilized... In fact I almost never get to see the female at all, im hoping she will become less shy after she gets more used to the tank. I will put in litte PVC tubes just in case tho, the way she hides I would never know if she berries up again!


----------



## Trail_Mix (May 17, 2011)

How'd it go? How'd you deal with raising all the young? Like as far as number and size of tanks, set-up in general, time involved, etc. Did you continue on to have more generations of CPOs after this?


----------



## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Trail_Mix said:


> How'd it go? How'd you deal with raising all the young? Like as far as number and size of tanks, set-up in general, time involved, etc. Did you continue on to have more generations of CPOs after this?


Bad dead thread revival.


----------

