Early last week our sweet blue crayfish Ace unexpectedly passed away. She was born in our tank as a teeny tiny, microscopically small and nearly translucent little baby to our first crayfish, Maverick, over a year and a half ago in Cincinnati and, like a champ, both she and Gigi survived the 10-hour move to Rochester (a rare and impressive feat in the cray world). It’s always hard to say goodbye to any pet, big or small. She saw a cool little girl and we’ll definitely miss her, but we are also happy to welcome a new little girl and her six fishy friends (and possibly a few yellow and orange mollies we may be inheriting soon) into our aquarium family.
Meet Cider!
Cider is a 6-9 month old orange clarkii crayfish. And she’s pretty spectacular as far as crayfish go. She’s our first not blue crayfish, so that bright pop of orange in the tank is quite a change and really stands out. She’s very inquisitive, likes to be out in the open, and isn’t much of a hider, which is good because she’s not that great at blending in.
But she is great at several other things, namely eating all.the.time (she was halfway through a large fish at least half her size when we first saw her at the aquarium shop…and she hasn’t slowed down since. We feed her multiple times a day and she’s absolutely mastered the art of begging for food. You thought crayfish didn’t beg? Wrong.) Cider is also an expert at detailed exploration, climbing everything in sight (plants, rocks, the tank walls…), continually relocating gravel in her tank to suit her personal tank decoration style, trying to squeeze into places she doesn’t fit, and quietly sneaking up on and terrorizing the six harlequin rasboras who share her tank. She’s actually very entertaining to watch and we’re so very happy to have her!
Like the proud parent I am, more to come later…
