Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all,

I have noticed that my freshwater crayfish has "fuzzy" stuff around his eyes and claws and wondered if anyone can tell me if this is a disease etc.

I took him out of my outdoor IBC tonight and put him my indoor tank with my SP's and thats when I noticed it. He can still see quite well and is still eating too.

If I need too I can take a pic n post it, but it looks like white velvet/lambs wool if that makes sense lol.

If it was a fish I would diagnose as fungus. I don't know if crays get it, but I guess they would. I have found a salt treatment to help with fish, but I don't know if crays handle salt at all.

General rule with anything though is the better the conditions you can give them, the more likely they will recover/less likely disease will take hold.

ok, My ibc has had its moments with the water quality,maybe the crays react differently to slightly adverse water conditions,maybe after a little while in my cleaner indoor tank it might subside.

I have the same symptoms on my yabbies... Simmo gave us the reason a while ago.... http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... &start=120
Third post down....

I think a quick dip in a salt bath would cure it... maybe 5-6 ppt for half an hour or so... what did you find simmo? I have noticed that when I treated my Bream for ICH the amount of white 'fur' on the yabbies decreased. Although they only slightly have it on them...

yep...thanks man, is a case of " well theres the problem" (mythbusters lol). There was an abundance of organic/food material in my IBC, I think I will crank up the air stone and have just looked at getting a new filter, mind you my indoor tank has only been running 2 days so the filter in it wont be fully operational as yet.......but it wouldnt hurt to add some filtration,

If that dont get rid of it I will do the salt bath thang.

Thanks guys

ps I found a crayfish site just now and they called it "fouling"...caused by water conditions and is non fatal if treated sooner rather than later by cleaning up the water

Sounds like Epistylis to me. Simmos yabbies had Temnocephala which are a type of worm.
Epistylis is usually caused due to a high organic load along with rising water temps. By decreasing feeding and improving water quality it should dissapear next time the crayfish moults.

thanks troutman

Hi BK, Im no expert but have kept yabbies in less than ideal conditions a few times before and have seen the same thing before with no detrimaental effects.

The thirty odd crayfish i have now were covered in algae and such when i caught them as the were from a late to dry up waterhole, being in the ap setup has seen the algae dissapear but they have retained a "fur"on theinside edge of the segement before the main claws this has change from algael green to a white , it hasnt paniced me because apart from that their happy healthy and eating well and ive considered it pretty normal as they do spend their days crawling round the bottom of the tank and therefore make a great growing surface for bacteria which im guessing is the normal state of things in nature.

Hi Bundy
I'm with Tim on this- the first sign of anything funny and I add salt ( not that Ive had crayfish before though).
Its a good idea to always have a heap of salt in your system anyway to reduce the prevelence of naughty bacteria. i know there are commercial preparations but sometimes they state they are not to be used on fish that are going to be eaten so in that case ive heard its best to use pure sea salt - not table salt as its has some stuff on it that stops it from being absorbed - I'm sure someone out there ( Steve?) can put this in more correct technical and scientific terms re the chemistry involved, which i would quite like to have explained to me properly anyway. The folks at the pet store coudlnt give me much detail. I was surprised at the amount of salt you can add ( cant remeber now of course) and that you need to replenish whenever you do a water change.
Good luck with your crawdaddy
Aeon

Apparently there is iodine added to table salt - you can get bags of salt from swimming pool places (no additives).

Troutman has named the 2 main diseases in crustaceans, should be easy to google for more info on them

cool...thankyou too all that have replied.

Tim B my ONLY real concern is the "fur" around his eyes ( not sure how he will go with a seeing eye yabby and Im sure training em is a prick of a job).

Being in my new indoor tank with clean water I hope will help alot, will watch him for a few days/ weeks and see if I have to go the salt option, I know it wont hurt em but Ive got 5 SP's in the same tank and they are fine.until they grow up

Check out this site: http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/FHEp ... x.php?0408

I gather your crayfish dosent quite look as bad as the one pictured. Well, not yet anyway!