death of 4 1/2yr old "BLUE LOBSTER"

[lou zello]

on fri. the 14th my son's blue lobster died.he was 4 1/2 yrs old and approx 7inch long.the next day i went and got him a new one.this one is allso blue but a female.how do i know it's a female?cause it was loaded with eggs,by the time i got home she allready started dropping babies in the bag so i ran out to the grocery store and got 100 plastic cups by the time i got back she had dropped most of the babies,i got 100 live ones out of the bag and let her loose in the tank she probably had another 50 on her but i had no more cups.i waited 2 days for the babies to eat the rest of their egg and then changed water in the cups and added a very small piece of flake food,ended up with 96 live babies and they all jumped on the food.now i will see how many i can grow out.my LFS said they will give me $15 each for how ever many i can bring back because they get $24.99 for each of them so we will see what happens!!!!!! WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!!

[J.B.]

Sorry to hear of the loss, Lou. Conversely, congratulations...sounds like your new charge has afforded you a lucrative financial opportunity...hope it goes well for you.

[ScottFish]

Ditto what JB said.

[lou zello]

thanks guys.i'll give growing out the 96 babies my best shot,we will see what happens and i'll keep everyone posted.

[twotone12valve]

Sorry to hear about the loss, that was an awsome looking cray. Congratulations on the the batch, and good luck!

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Lou, my heart goes out to you for the loss of your lobster. What a blessing, though, to pick up a pregnant female. Life continues on. I hope you'll keep us posted on how the babies are doing.

[lou zello]

well the babies are doing good but got to be a hassle trying to keep them in the little plastic cups so got a 10gal and put them in it with a little sponge filter am hopeing they won't eat each other so far so good.will keep you all posted

[twotone12valve]

I have an idea on how to stop the cannibalism in your 10 gallon tank. If you take a bunch of 1" and 1.5"PVC pipe and cut it to 4"~ lengths you may be able to provide enough hiding places for those you have left to survive when they molt. It wouldn't be the best looking tank at all but it should surve its purpose quite well.

[lou zello]

thanks 12 valve will get some pvc today i allready added a bunch of moss i got from the LFS that seems to help a little but i will still get the pvc.

[twotone12valve]

So did the PVC idea help you out any?

[lou zello]

not too much.i put 15 pc's in but they have still been eating each other!!!!!!!!today's water change and i was only able to count 15-20 left out of the 96------no dead bodies just less babies!!!!!!!!!!!

[twotone12valve]

Well Dang, that sucks. I know anything in the cray family is territorial like crazy I just wouldn't think they would do it that young.

[lou zello]

yes even as the mom was having the babies she was trying to catch them and eat them!!!!!!!!!

[twotone12valve]

Thats nuts how crazy is that, to bad it wasn't as easy as raising some CRS or RCS.

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Lou,

Maybe you need a tank with 15-20 dividers in it. Good gosh! I had no idea these critters were this cannibalistic.