My two orange morph Procambarus clarkii from my crayfish-buddy Chrissy (on bluecrayfish.com) have been mating. I'm not particularly happy about this, since they're siblings and I don't really believe in the selective breeding through inbreeding that a lot of keepers and breeders do. But I hadn't thought they'd be old enough to mate yet (I didn't even think the white morph male who I wanted to use for breeding with the orange morph female was old enough, and he's massive compared to this male).
At least on the bright side, anomalies and defects from inbreeding don't usually show up in the first generation of inbreeding (at least, from what I've observed in other keeper's and breeder's crayfish). So, hopefully the offspring that result from this encounter will be all right for the most part.
Makes me wonder if coloration plays a part in breeding though. I had all three crayfish together in one tank to grow out before I separated them and placed them with larger crayfish. But before the white morph male's last molt, he was the same size as the orange morph male now. And if he's not in Form I now, then he was before the last molt. So, why wasn't he interested in the female? And she hasn't molted in a while, so I don't think it's that she was old enough or not sexually mature. Hmm, whatever I guess.
Can't wait to have little orange baby crayfish crawling around the tank!
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