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NFC: RE: Native Fish Conservancy Digest

I would like to add something to this discussion of crayfish concerning
coloration.  I have collecting small crayfish from different locations for
several years to feed a spoiled long ear.  My first experience with a small
blue crayfish was one I collected nearly 30 years ago.  I was told by a
university professor friend that this was probably due to a lack of yellow
pigment and that it would not last through the molts.  This particular
crayfish lasted several years and grew to near lobster proportions, and the
blue color only intensified.
I have collected several species of the drab green juvenile crayfish in the
past several years which actually turned blue while in captivity.  One in
particular now is 4.5-inches in length and has molted several times in the
last month.  It is a cornflower blue and each successive molting is getting
paler in coloration.
When I collected these crayfish they were less than a half inch in length
and I feed them on a strict diet of red wigglers that I raise.  My only
conclusion is that the diet or possibly the local tab water in Wichita has
something to do with this anomaly.  Regardless of the species or source,
this has occurred on a number of occasions.  I had collected a number of
juveniles form a source in southeaster Kansas several years ago.  Of the two
that survived my feeding program, one turned blue then red and blue, and
another other turned blue.
I have given several of the blues away to different people in different
areas and the coloration does not seem to diminish.  If there is a
reasonable explanation for this I have not come across it.  Anyone have a
take on this?

morgan
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