WHAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT CRAYFISH

I've always been fascinated by this.

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For one thing, when I saw "crayfish" I also mean "crawdads" and "crawfish." You see, up north people usually call them either "crayfish" or "crawdads." Here, further south, people usually refer to them as "crawfish." Anyway, whatever you call them, here is one interesting thing that you may not have known.

CHECK THIS OUT!

Late the other night, we saw some interesting creatures down at the lake. This female crayfish was one of those interesting creatures that we saw. If you look carefully, you may see something peculiar under her tail.

In this photo I've circled some sort of pink "blob" that is hiding under her tail. So, is it a growth or tumor of some sort? Is it a wound or here guts hanging out? Is it some sort of parasite?

NOPE - IT'S BABIES!!!

Actually, these are her babies! A pregnant female crayfish will have a large cluster of round balls under her tail. These are her eggs. Once the eggs hatch, they turn into the tiny little crayfish. At this point they are still pink and soft since their exoskeleton has not yet hardened.

Normally, when people think of an animal carrying their young on their "belly" marsupials come to mind. This Opossum shown above is the largest marsupial in the Western Hemisphere. However, crayfish are definitely not marsupials.

Kangaroos are of course another animal that people think of when you mention babies on the belly. Unlike crayfish, though, kangaroos have a special pouch to keep their young in.

While crayfish are not marsupials or mammals, they still make good mothers. Actually, it is not uncommon for tiny, creepy, crawly creatures to carry around their young. Scorpions will carry their young on their backs. While I don't have an original photo of that at the moment, hopefully I'll get one this year. Also, the scorpion glowing under the UV light does make a good image anyway. Thankfully it didn't sting my thumb.

If the scorpion did have young on its back, it would look something like this mama wolf spider I found two years ago. It is interesting to think about all the care that some creatures have for their young, especially when compared to some people...

Anyway, here is a close up of those tiny pink babies. I think that their eyes stick out the most. Since they mostly just hang on tight to mama at this point, it is important to either handle them gently, or not handle them at all. Any baby that gets jostled free will most likely become fish food.

So, how many of you knew about this before? Was this news to you? After all of the interest in my post about lizards getting ticks, it seems that people like it when I share interesting facts about animals. What do you think? Do you enjoy educational, informational posts about animals like this?

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-of-mama-crayfish

Until next time…

GIF provided by @anzirpasai

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