# Crayfish experiment



## Transylvania (Oct 25, 2007)

My biology teacher is having us all collect local crayfish and conduct our own experiments on them (we can choose whether to keep them alive and perform humane experiments, or freeze and dissect them). I think I'm going to keep mine alive, but I can't think of any experiments to do without having to buy a whole bunch of equipment. Any suggestions?


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## thedude (Oct 25, 2007)

Saddlepatch said:


> My biology teacher is having us all collect local crayfish and conduct our own experiments on them (we can choose whether to keep them alive and perform humane experiments, or freeze and dissect them). I think I'm going to keep mine alive, but I can't think of any experiments to do without having to buy a whole bunch of equipment. Any suggestions?


study how they feed


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## tin man (Oct 25, 2007)

or you can study which envirnments they do better in


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## Mack&Cass (Oct 25, 2007)

you could observe territorial behavior like defense and display


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## REAL (Oct 25, 2007)

Studies that I can think of at the moment:

1. Mating (their life cycle, how they attract a mate, how to differentiate between a male and a female)
2. Eating habbits
3. Food they like to eat
4. Their anatomy (like how are they able to breath, reproduce, how do they use each part to assist them in surviving. Their body functions and how they are used when they catch prey or run away from predators)
5. Parasites (I had some and sometimes they have parasites on them)
6. How temperatures affect them relating to all of the above. Their likes and dislikes. 

Have fun!
~Nathan


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## Transylvania (Oct 25, 2007)

Thanks guys! Those are all great ideas; tomorrow I'll go catch my crayfish.


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## REAL (Oct 25, 2007)

Saddlepatch said:


> Thanks guys! Those are all great ideas; tomorrow I'll go catch my crayfish.


Good way to catch crayfish:

Get a hot dog and a fishing line. Throw it in and wait a bit and pull up a few. Or you can get a crab net and put the hotdog in the middle and pull it up.

Its fun with the hotdogs they seem to enjoy it. I use to fish for crayfish like that.


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## Curry (Oct 25, 2007)

REAL said:


> Good way to catch crayfish:
> 
> Get a hot dog and a fishing line. Throw it in and wait a bit and pull up a few. Or you can get a crab net and put the hotdog in the middle and pull it up.
> 
> Its fun with the hotdogs they seem to enjoy it. I use to fish for crayfish like that.


Haha Im gonna try hot dogs when I go fishing next time. I've landed fluke with chicken skin once... lol


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## REAL (Oct 25, 2007)

Curry said:


> Haha Im gonna try hot dogs when I go fishing next time. I've landed fluke with chicken skin once... lol


Haha, they were all over that hot dog like flies over poop  

My friend also tried fried chicken wing, but I think the crayfish seemed to favor the hotdog more. 

My friend kept catching a bunch. I once saw a crayfish so freaken big I almost thought it was a lobster. I have no idea how it got so freaken big, must be 2-3x bigger than usual. I forgot where I saw it too, sooooo many years.

Maybe I did saw a lobster omfg


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## dtknow (Oct 25, 2007)

An easy quickie experiment would be to determine what kind of shelter they like best. They should be distinctively negatively phototaxic. You can go from there.


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## Cocoa-Jin (Oct 25, 2007)

Mmmm, crayfish...the only bug i'll eat


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## REAL (Oct 26, 2007)

Cocoa-Jin said:


> Mmmm, crayfish...the only bug i'll eat


Crayfish = taaaaaasty!! :drool: 

I rather eat them than a lobster anydays. Dunno whats so great about lobsters...


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## Choobaine (Oct 26, 2007)

I couldn't do an experiment like that, I'd eat it.

Locusts too... I kept them for a while. Then ate them...


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## Transylvania (Oct 26, 2007)

Actually, my teacher told us two good ways to catch them:
-Tie some raw bacon to some string and drop it down into a crayfish hole, and once you feel them tugging on the string, pull it up
-Open a can of wet cat food a little bit (just enough to allow the smell to escape) and put it in a little trap underwater, tied to a rope, and leave it there for a few hours before pulling it out to see what you get.


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## REAL (Oct 26, 2007)

Saddlepatch said:


> Actually, my teacher told us two good ways to catch them:
> -Tie some raw bacon to some string and drop it down into a crayfish hole, and once you feel them tugging on the string, pull it up
> -Open a can of wet cat food a little bit (just enough to allow the smell to escape) and put it in a little trap underwater, tied to a rope, and leave it there for a few hours before pulling it out to see what you get.


Whatever works man, I'm too poor to give them bacon, but come back and tell us how the catching goes!

If u got extras you can ship them to me, cause I just woke up and I'm real hungry.

(shipping costs nowadays make it not worth the buy haha)


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## radjess331 (Oct 26, 2007)

so yeah every now and then when im collecting water cultures to feed my carnivorous plant u.gibba i accidently catch some of them ....and i have found that if not fed they will be cannabalistic and you can go from having 6 to 1 in about 2 weeks.....so yeah....you can always do an experiment on that...however if they are the same size they may take longer to kill each other.....but if one is alot bigger then the othrs like 3 times bigger then they will dissapear alot faster....hehehehe


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## Transylvania (Oct 26, 2007)

If I catch more than one, I'll just house them in separate containers. And I don't think I could ever eat a crayfish; they're too cute.


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## REAL (Oct 26, 2007)

Saddlepatch said:


> If I catch more than one, I'll just house them in separate containers. And I don't think I could ever eat a crayfish; they're too cute.


Btw, they love cheerio and stuff like boiled corn lol.


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## radjess331 (Oct 27, 2007)

i always just fed them bread


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## Darwinsdad (Oct 27, 2007)

What ever happend to catching them the old fashioned way. Wad out into about a foot of water where there is a nice rock bed. Gently flip the rocks trying not to disturb too much silt. You should be able to see them resting on the bottom. Slowly move your hand to cup them from above and ......quick, snatch them up. We used to collect them by the hundreds this way when we were kids.


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## Transylvania (Oct 27, 2007)

Darwinsdad said:


> What ever happend to catching them the old fashioned way. Wad out into about a foot of water where there is a nice rock bed. Gently flip the rocks trying not to disturb too much silt. You should be able to see them resting on the bottom. Slowly move your hand to cup them from above and ......quick, snatch them up. We used to collect them by the hundreds this way when we were kids.


I tried that today with no success. It's worked for me before, but for some reason, they didn't come out today. So I just left out the trap and we'll see what we get in the morning...


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## Choobaine (Oct 27, 2007)

good luck on that! I allways used to catch minnows in streams and keep them as pets. That was fun. And frogs too. I'm sure that's illegal here. But kids are kids especially ones that can breed frogs without any instruction at 7years old  

I hope you get a really big one and just sit and stare at it for days. I do that.


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## RoachGirlRen (Oct 27, 2007)

Darwinsdad said:


> What ever happend to catching them the old fashioned way. Wad out into about a foot of water where there is a nice rock bed. Gently flip the rocks trying not to disturb too much silt. You should be able to see them resting on the bottom. Slowly move your hand to cup them from above and ......quick, snatch them up. We used to collect them by the hundreds this way when we were kids.


Amen to that, I've always caught crays in this fashion. Sometimes they'll jet right under your foot when they try to escape, then they're really easy to find. haha.

Good luck with the crays! Just make sure the captive environment has plenty of hides as they stress easily when exposed, and of course a good current and aeration. If I didn't have so many dang fish right now, I'd be keeping crays... though I suppose if I get a big enough cray, he'll take care of the fish problem. ::evil laugh::


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## Transylvania (Oct 28, 2007)

Darn. The trap broke, so I had to set up another one.  I'll check on it again tomorrow.


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## Acro (Oct 29, 2007)

For a good and easy experiment, buy some feeder goldfish from your local pet store.  Make sure to get some fish that are Brown and some that are Gold.  Put about 4 gold fish in each crayfish tank and see what fish get eaten first.  Normally it will be the gold ones because they are brighter in color as opposed to the brown.


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## scolex (Oct 29, 2007)

I say for your Crayfish experiment, you should do recipts! See what way to cook and spice them up. I want to see what your teacher like the best!!!


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## Craiger (Oct 30, 2007)

Darwinsdad said:


> What ever happend to catching them the old fashioned way. Wad out into about a foot of water where there is a nice rock bed. Gently flip the rocks trying not to disturb too much silt. You should be able to see them resting on the bottom. Slowly move your hand to cup them from above and ......quick, snatch them up. We used to collect them by the hundreds this way when we were kids.


That brings back the good ole days. Me and a buddy would bring back 50+ a day doing that.


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## REAL (Oct 30, 2007)

You know, last time I went to the mall (Asian mall)...they sold me a giant bucket full of crayfish for $5. 

They's a myty goood ate'n yes'm :drool:


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## Tleilaxu (Nov 2, 2007)

Do that catfood trick and put it in a minnow trap, crayfish also love fish as well. Also from my years of keeping them, they are able to learn simple things. For example in my crayfish only tank, once they realized they were the top dogs they were ALWAYS out even in broad daylight, and can be hand fed. Some even beg. Have fun with them, they make cool pets.

Just an unpleasent note: they do hoard food, so make sure they are eating everything and not just hoarding it. One of my crays had a stash of 20 minnows in his hideout, that was disgusting.


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## Transylvania (Nov 18, 2007)

Okay, I have my crayfish (finally).  Now I have to put together an Experimental Design Diagram of what I plan on doing. I've decided to try experimenting with water salinity, but I'm a bit confused on how I should go about doing it. Here's what I've got so far:

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN DIAGRAM

(Title) The Effect of the Water Salinity on the Reaction Time of Crayfish.
(Hypothesis) If the Water Salinity Increases,
then the Reaction Time of Crayfish will Increase.

Independent Variable (IV): Water Salinity
Levels of the IV:     ? (Control)     ? (Low)     ? (High)
Number of Trials: As many as time and money will allow.

Dependent Variable (DV): Reaction Time of Crayfish
Constants (C): Water Temperature, Space, Habitat, Size of Crayfish, Air Temperature, Health of Crayfish​
Where I have question marks is where I'm stuck. How should I increase the salinity of the water?  Of course, with salt. But how much should I add at a time, and how would that be measured? Grams? Teaspoons? I don't want to add too much and accidently kill my crayfish. :? Any help would be much appreciated!


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## driver (Nov 18, 2007)

i used to catch them flipping flat stones over along the edge of the river while i was out fishing. seemed like they liked to hide under large flat stones. i'd wade in to the outside of the rock and tip it to one side, they'd shoot towards the bank and then i'd pounce. actually caught quite a few this way around here. unfortnately a couple years ago it seems like they all died out in our area. they came out of nowhere, were around for a few years, and then disappeared as quickly as they came.


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## Ted (Nov 18, 2007)

i would do an experiment to see how they liked to swim in a butter and garlic sauce.:}


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## NevularScorpion (Nov 18, 2007)

hi! do you guys know where to ger some crayfish because i always want to have one as a pet


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## Chrysopid (Nov 18, 2007)

I live in Kansas and it is easy to find crayfish, you can buy them at bait shops.


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## Transylvania (Nov 18, 2007)

*sigh* Can you all please help me? I don't need any info on catching or eating them.  This diagram is _very_ important and it's due tomorrow morning...


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## Transylvania (Nov 19, 2007)

Never mind. I've decided to try pH instead of salinity. Hopefully the chemicals to raise and lower the pH won't kill the crayfish... :?


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