A Paludarium for a Very Unique Crayfish

[Sapere_Ceta]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:46 AM, quirkylemon103 said:

how is Gandr doing?

He’s been doing good! He’s been coming out a lot, waking up at around the same time I do, and comes and goes throughout the day. I’d say I see him out usually 3-4 times a day. Occasionally, he’s up at around 3am, wanting to get out sometimes. Though, I haven’t let him come out on the couch besides the time I last posted, as I’d worry something would go wrong. He’s such a fragile, clumsy guy! Haha. As I’m typing, he’s out again for the fifth or sixth time today. He’ll come out and put his little claw to the front panel, or stand up and get little glass pets. I don’t see him use the land portion, but he certainly tries to get onto the couch here and there. Currently, he’s waving his claw out of the water at the front. Every now and again, I catch him with his face sticking out of the water, usually covered in bubbles. It’s so funny. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

I’ve gotten some new growth in Gandr’s setup lately. I can’t say I’ve done the best with misting though, so I really need to get on top of that. I’ve been having a gnat issue still. Every time I seem to get a handle on them, I’ll find more. So, I will have to keep an eye on them more frequently, as I slacked a bit because of how I’ve been feeling. Still not nearly as bad as before though. 
I’ve kept the setup on the dryer side, as I didn’t want the gnats to be able to successfully reproduce. This in turn caused a little bit of dry out with some of my plants. 

I also have been having a slight fungus issue, and the springtail colony I purchased for it arrived very dead. Some eggs survived, so I have been replenishing their numbers, and likely will be able to add some to help solve the issue soon. 

This is just before the blue light came on tonight: 

Not all of the plants are happy, but I’ve had a lot of new growth on some of the plants. I’ll start getting more on top of the setup tomorrow and forward from then on. But, I always have been keeping up with his water changes. He had one recently, and came out after and seemed pleased. 

I also have been filming when I feed him here and there. I’ve never sent a GIF through this app before, so I’m hoping it works. But here is my attempted GIF at me feeding Gandr his Spinach: 

If I was successful at my attempt, you’d see how he is hilariously uncoordinated and goofy with how he eats. I love when he wriggles his claws around trying to grab his food, like little grabby hands (or in this case, claws). Sometimes he decides to eat in front of me, while other times, he’ll slowly back into his cave with his food. I try to not confuse him with my hands (thinking they’re always bringing food) so I put one finger up as a way to say “I’m getting you your food”, then I tap four times when adding the food, and give him a thumbs up after the food is added, or he will stand there and panic or hide (he used to be afraid of any food I would add; the carrot fear likely is one he still has but has not been tested further). The thumbs up is a safety signal. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

Here is another GIF of Gandr eating a blackberry: 

He didn’t notice how it fell so quickly. It took him a while to catch on, but he found it shortly thereafter. 
I have an idea on how I might get him to be able to grab it more easily. But, he gets excited with his food sometimes (hence the cute little lunge), so I’m not too keen on getting accidentally pinched if I make an error. It likely wouldn’t hurt much though, but I wouldn’t want it to spook him, if he sees he didn’t grab the correct object. He doesn’t mind tongs from a distance in his enclosure, but doesn’t like them by him at all. So, I will try my idea maybe next time, and see how it goes. I’ve handed him blueberries once before, but he’s not always the most gentle. 

[lefty o]

5 minutes ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

Here is another GIF of Gandr eating a blackberry: 

He didn’t notice how it fell so quickly. It took him a while to catch on, but he found it shortly thereafter. 
I have an idea on how I might get him to be able to grab it more easily. But, he gets excited with his food sometimes (hence the cute little lunge), so I’m not too keen on getting accidentally pinched if I make an error. It likely wouldn’t hurt much though, but I wouldn’t want it to spook him, if he sees he didn’t grab the correct object. He doesn’t mind tongs from a distance in his enclosure, but doesn’t like them by him at all. So, I will try my idea maybe next time, and see how it goes. I’ve handed him blueberries once before, but he’s not always the most gentle. 

thats pretty cool.

[Lemon]

I think a large crayfish seems like a great pet online but then I walk into a fish store and see a small one and I get . . . scared(not a lot)

[Sapere_Ceta]

3 hours ago, quirkylemon103 said:

I think a large crayfish seems like a great pet online but then I walk into a fish store and see a small one and I get . . . scared(not a lot)

I am sometimes that way with Arachnids. I would love to keep some Tarantulas someday, but the small house spiders that occasionally spook me can look off-putting to me. Gandr has for some reason helped me feel a little less creeped out by small spiders, I didn’t realize how there are a lot of similarities between the two.  

[Hobbit]

14 hours ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

If I was successful at my attempt, you’d see how he is hilariously uncoordinated and goofy with how he eats. I love when he wriggles his claws around trying to grab his food, like little grabby hands (or in this case, claws).

That is so hilariously cute. I would not have expected him to have such a hard time eating!

[Sapere_Ceta]

12 minutes ago, Hobbit said:

That is so hilariously cute. I would not have expected him to have such a hard time eating!

Yeah! He is adorably uncoordinated, haha. When I add his food in, there were times he frantically runs around hitting the front panel nonstop with his claws, until he finds it. But, I then I tried hand feeding him one day, and he didn’t mind it. So, I’ve been doing that for most foods, excluding the bloodworms and occasional krill or shrimp pellets. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

I started up my plant maintenance again, as well as waged war once more on the gnats. I vacuumed them up, all but one I believe, though there might be some hiding.

I think that I likely will be able to get rid of them completely soon, maybe if I get the vacuum out every day to every few days to catch the stragglers. Though there’s always 3-6 I end up finding every so often, when I think I’ve taken care of the issue (is this an excuse to get tree frogs now? Just kidding, haha). 

I misted and watered them all as well. 

I poured some of the liquid from my developing springtail culture into the land portion, and allowed some charcoal to spill out with it. I have a small amount of springtails (more than a dozen) inside the culture that have been reproducing, so I’m hoping within a few days, I’ll see some springtails in this enclosure. If not, I’ll wait a little longer and repeat the process. 

The Moss isn’t very happy, but I’m going to get back to readily keeping it misted, since I’m getting a handle on things again.

I also did photograph a little bit of the new growth I’ve been seeing. I didn’t take photos of all of it, as I’m terrified I’m going to drop my phone in the water and fish it out too late (my hands have been tingling nonstop lately, so they’re very numb and not working well, and I recently dropped my phone into some water because of it). 
So here are a few plants that I’m seeing some new growth from: 

[Sapere_Ceta]

While I was vacuuming, Gandr had poked his head out of his cave. He looked adorably grumpy, and walked forward a little more, staring out of the cave, with his body was sideways (what a goof).

He came out to investigate, so I shut the vacuum off and moved the vacuum back, so he could look at it from a distance. 

Afterwards, I went and prepared him a strawberry, and sliced it into halves, so it wasn’t too large. He was back in his cave when I came back with his strawberry, so I tapped a few times to get his attention. It took a little longer to draw him out, but he once again stepped out into the cave entrance with his body completely sideways.
I tapped again, and he came out completely and went to the front panel, where I fed him his strawberry. 

He got ahold of it a little more easily this time. I tried to place it into his little claws close to his mouth, which seemed to make it a little easier (though he uses his big claws to try and grab everything, in a very clunky way). He decided to take it back to his cave this time. 

I later gave him a tiny piece of strawberry, and he took it with his little claws better. Though he tries to grab everything with his big claws too, and almost pinched me, in his excited, grabby hand mode, but didn’t. I think he was trying to be a little cautious though, as he would move his claw away and not close it on my fingers, haha. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

A few days ago, I did a 40-45% water change on Gandr’s enclosure. He handles larger volume water changes well, so thankfully I can do one large one once per week, sometimes a little sooner. 

But previous to the water change, I gave Gandr some blanched spinach. 

After he finished his meal, or when I assumed he likely did, as he was staying in his cave, I started up his water change. 

I misted the aquarium down, vacuumed up a couple more gnats (they’re so good at hiding, I never catch them all, haha). 

 

I also poured out more of the springtail enclosure, as I don’t think I had gotten any out from the first time. I know I got a few out this time, so I think I will start to see more in the future! I can always repeat the process if needed.  

[Sapere_Ceta]

Today, I found my remote that I lost for a while. The two dim times were raised by two. That way, it’s still dimmer for my light sensitivity, but a little bit brighter for the plants. 

I vacuumed up more gnats today, and trimmed some leaves that I accidentally damaged today (I’m not always too graceful with the vacuum, haha). 
Of course, I misted the enclosure too. 

I think the mistings are slowly helping the plants regain a little bit of their green color back, the Moss seems to be not as brown in some spots. 
I think with enough time and continuation of maintenance, I’ll start to see them regain a healthier appearance. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

I offered him another blackberry today. He acted as though he grabbed ahold of it perfectly, and then he dropped it and started waving his claws around, as if it didn’t fall, until he finally grabbed it off of the bottom 🤣

[lefty o]

17 minutes ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

I offered him another blackberry today. He acted as though he grabbed ahold of it perfectly, and then he dropped it and started waving his claws around, as if it didn’t fall, until he finally grabbed it off of the bottom 🤣

maybe he needs glasses! 😎

[Sapere_Ceta]

The light looks really cool at night; it makes some parts of plants have somewhat of a reddish purple hue, when combined with the light in the living room. 
 

[Hobbit]

He is too funny! His enclosure looks gorgeous—those plants are really coming along!

I’m not sure if this will work in your case, but I’ve read that the gnats feed on fungus that grows on the soil surface. One way to prevent this is to cover any soil with sand. I don’t know if Gandr is used to sand or if that would just be a huge mess for you, but it works well in my houseplant pots.

[H.K.Luterman]

I love how he takes the food from you. Too cute.

[Sapere_Ceta]

23 hours ago, Hobbit said:

He is too funny! His enclosure looks gorgeous—those plants are really coming along!

I’m not sure if this will work in your case, but I’ve read that the gnats feed on fungus that grows on the soil surface. One way to prevent this is to cover any soil with sand. I don’t know if Gandr is used to sand or if that would just be a huge mess for you, but it works well in my houseplant pots.

Thanks! I’m excited to see their progress! I know I slowed things down from trying to keep the setup more dry, but I’m hoping to start seeing a boost in growth, since I’ve upped the mistings to a proper amount.

That could be! I did add some springtails in to hopefully keep any fungus as bay. I’m thinking of getting some gnat traps and hiding them in the canopy where the light is, while the springtails establish. I’ve thought about sand, but I forgot I had to orientate some of the pots when I was setting the enclosure up, so they’re sitting at angles and would spill out any sand I’d try to put in. It likely would work well, if I kept the pots more upright initially. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

13 hours ago, H.K.Luterman said:

I love how he takes the food from you. Too cute.

He’s so adorable, it makes me smile every time. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

@H.K.Luterman I fed him pineapple today, for the first time. I was curious if he would like it, because it’s more sweet tasting compared to the fruits he usually enjoys. 

To my surprise, he took it very gracefully! Didn’t drop it either. It’s so cute, because you can see his tiny little claws holding it and feeling it over, before walking away with it to take it back to his little cave. 
I suppose he approved of it, after all, he never threw it haha. 
 

I slept for maybe an hour yesterday, before my mom woke me up at around 6-7am to find Gandr out walking around in the living room again. My fault, as I got too comfortable with him not trying to explore on the carpet again.. I should have known better. He will always be an adventurer at heart 😅

My mom said she walked over and noticed him waddling around past the couch, near the middle of the living room. She exclaimed his name and called out to me, and apparently Gandr must have been spooked from her voice or maybe if she took a step, because he somehow did a 180 flip, and laid there squirming on his back. 
That’s the scene I woke up to, looking at my mom and then down to the floor, groggily, to see Gandr on his back, squirming around with his claws reaching up into the air. 

I got up and stumbled over, sat down onto the floor, and laid my hand out. For a “struggling” little guy, he sure did stop right away and turn right over 🤣

He casually waddled over and onto my hand, and then sat there in it, while I walked him back to his home. I placed my hand semi in the water, and he got off, let out all of the air bubbles he was holding onto (he clearly prepared for this trip), and started stretching his claws and legs and tail. After a long while of stretching that seemed even enjoyable feeling to me, he walked back into his cave and took a nap. He later came out to get his meal for the day, the pineapple.

I also added some salt into his enclosure, since I want to try and prevent any bacterial issues that could occur from his earlier adventure. 

Needless to say, the screen went on tonight. No 6am shenanigans for him today. 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Sapere_Ceta

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I 💜 Gandr. He's adorable. I love that he's mischievous too. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

Hello everyone. I haven’t posted in a long time, due to a number of reasons. Unfortunately, Gandr had passed away August 6th. 

More than a month prior, he was entering a pre-molt, which seemed to be much more hard on him than his previous pre-molt and molt. His symptoms I’ve always had to deal with worsened significantly at that time, but I’ve continued to get them to a point where they seemed to regress. He ended up molting, and that seemed to be the catalyst for making it worse. His molt was perfect, and he did it right in front of me, so I was able to observe him molting, which was a neat sight. Afterwards, he became incredibly inactive, withdrawn, and would not eat for more than a month, even with my continuous attempts. His symptoms were pretty bad, and I was really worry about him.

One day, I was able to get him to eat, and for the next week, I was able to do so as well. He still was withdrawn, but would come to see and interact with me here and there. Not long after, he started to not eat again, and I didn’t see him for many weeks.

 

Abruptly, the bottom of his bin I had used to create the water portion cracked, and it was not fixable, so I unfortunately had to take him and place him into a temporary setup, and I had to throw out the entire paludarium I had made him. 
 

I was incredibly worried, knowing he was not doing very well, to move him. But after setting up a very large bin that was set up to hopefully try to accommodate some of his symptoms, he started to do very well in it. I was extremely hopeful.

I had a procedure coming up not long after, and while preparing for it, I always was checking on him.  The night of August 4th, he began to interact with me a lot more, coming up for glass-pets often, climbing onto his filter and jumping off of it repeatedly so he would float down into the water, only to repeat, stand up on the filter so he could be partially out of the water and make little noises to me or wave to me. He seemed to be doing better. He still was having trouble eating, and his symptoms would still be there, but that day, they were much less prominent, and I was able to get him to eat a bit of his high quality shrimp pellets. 
 

August 5th, I had my tilt table venogram very early in the morning. I woke up, checked on him immediately, and said goodbye to him. He was sleeping. After the procedure, I came home to find him a little lethargic. He still came up to wave, see me, and receive little glass-pets. But, due to my procedure, I was sleeping for 90% of the day and was very limited in movement, as certain positions could trigger internal bleeding from my catheter site, as it was placed into a major vein of my uterus. 

I was more awake at around 10:30-11:00pm. I had turned on the movie ‘The Nightingale’ and would periodically try to turn and check on Gandr, who was still lethargic. Within 2 hours, now August 6th, his symptoms and lethargy worsened significantly, but he was still near me, but started to lay down. I was becoming deeply worried, but didn’t know what I could do, as it was rapidly worsening. Up until this point, I was able to usually get his symptoms to be less apparent, but they’d always come back. I heard bubbles collectively hit the surface, and turned to see him slump over. I knew at that point he was gone, but I quickly scooped him up, and held him in front of his filter, increased the flow and the bubble count (it was a filter with an air stone).

Crayfish have their hearts positioned under the backs of their carapace, so I gave extremely gentle compressions while I was holding him and trying to keep him well oxygenated. It was not working, and finally, I stopped. I had revived a pond turtle before and a friend’s fish after they had jumped out of their aquarium and were unnoticed for some time while I was visiting, both had a differing process of their own but were successful. Unfortunately, he didn’t respond to what I tried. 

I woke my mom up, and we cried together. We placed him in a bag, then into a box, and into the freezer. I would like to cremate him someday, but I was told it’s more expensive because crayfish aren’t usually ever cremated. So, I’m saving up to do so some day.

This is a big reason as to why I haven’t felt able to post here. It’s been almost four months, and I still am heartbroken about losing him. But, I know it never was expected he would live the first weeks I had him, as everyone I conversed with seemed to think he had a rare and seemingly undocumented disease. So, I am grateful to have him for as long as I did. I did not expect to ever establish such a bond with a crayfish, and I’ve never met one like him before. I feel like I’ve lost my only friend, and when you’re couchridden 90% of the time, and have someone who does want to interact with you, always says good morning, good night, etc to me, it’s difficult to lose that companion. 
 

Outside of this, my mom’s was car totaled after we drove 8 hours to rescue a kitten in October that was going to be euthanized the following week. Due to this, we lost all of our savings and aren’t able to move out. October 15th was when I received multiple surgeries at once, including a partial hysterectomy also with removal of the Eustachian tube, which unfortunately did not help my reproductive organ issues, and so I will need the other half removed. In early November, we were almost homeless, and currently, we’re in the process of losing my grandpa’s home, but we are hoping it will be resolved and our trying our best to do our part in the matter. 

So, with all of this, I’ve been overwhelmed while having my typical symptoms and flare ups, and I haven’t had the energy or motivation til now to post. I’m sorry that I hadn’t updated anyone on Gandr, up until this point. But, I hope you all can understand. 
 

I have many videos and pictures of Gandr that I haven’t shared, but I have yet to want to rewatch them or post them. Some time in the future, I may. Grume, my giant betta, is still doing well. And, I finally had gotten clearance to be able to work on the aquarium again, after a long recovery. I’m still struggling with keeping up with scheduled maintenance, but I’m slowly doing better with it, and will post about his aquarium.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Oh @Sapere_Ceta I am so very heartbroken for you. Gandr had the best possible crayfish mom he could have EVER found. He was obviously so very happy with you and to be around you. I'd never heard of a crayfish being so interactive and while yours isn't the only one, I'm convinced Gandr was very special. Sometimes people use the words "Soul Mate" to describe other people, but I know that animals can be that for us too if such a thing even exists- so I completly understand why you haven't been here- let alone your other worrisome troubles. Please take care of yourself. 💙

[Sapere_Ceta]

On 11/30/2021 at 11:19 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Oh @Sapere_Ceta I am so very heartbroken for you. Gandr had the best possible crayfish mom he could have EVER found. He was obviously so very happy with you and to be around you. I'd never heard of a crayfish being so interactive and while yours isn't the only one, I'm convinced Gandr was very special. Sometimes people use the words "Soul Mate" to describe other people, but I know that animals can be that for us too if such a thing even exists- so I completly understand why you haven't been here- let alone your other worrisome troubles. Please take care of yourself. 💙

Thank you, that’s very kind. I do think he was very special too, and I’m really grateful to have been able to experience his personality and interactions. I never imagined I’d have that from a crayfish, and none I’ve had kept before were ever similar. Yeah, I definitely am taking it all day by day, along with my mom. 

[lefty o]

good to see you back. sorry to hear your little buddy passed, and the other issues.