# Blue cray/new tank emergency help!!!



## brobinson (Jan 21, 2012)

I just swapped my 4 year old 20g tank for a new 55g. I used about 18g of old tank water, treated/salted each 5 gallons with dechlorinator/NitraBan that I added separately, added new plants, treated the entire tank with CorrectPH to 6.8-7, water temp to 74, rinsed the substrate in leftover tank water, same filter, added a powerhead for waterflow, in the far corner, put the bubble stone in the middle, then checked the pH and ammonia after 2 hours in case my locally collected sandstone and granite (boiled, soaked, and boiled again [after being hollered at by my gf for using her good pans]) affected pH. 

I acclimatized all of the fish, freshwater mussels, and my blue cray. The Guppies are happily nibbling on everything, the Neon Tetra's have stopped shoaling, and the Pleco is calmly munching on its' driftwood.

It's been about 9 hours since I closed up the tank, and about an hour ago, my blue cray has stopped randomly exploring, and instead became hell-bent on getting out, despite having 3 new caves to explore and dig out. He's started climbing everything, and eventually perched on top of the large rock formation I used to hide the powerhead. After I chased him down with a net (to examine his behavior), he tried climbing the driftwood, then used caridoid escape reflex to start swimming (making me think it's something to do with water quality), and occasionally breached the surface on a dolphin-esque swim around the tank for about 3 or 4 minutes. I grabbed him and turned him over for a couple minutes and hit his gills with the powerhead tube outflow, and he's still been actively climbing around the bottom, instead of retreating at being manhandled. 

I've already lost a 4 y.o. blue cray, that in my very drunken Friday and Saturday nights, I eventually tamed and got to climb up my hand, and stayed there instead of retreating to her cave, eating a chunk of hamburger and climbing for more, who was acting like this about 3 days after I changed the substrate from kiddy-tank blue and yellow rocks to SeaChem Flourite (who my cray is a replacement for). 

Any ideas as to ************ is wrong?


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## brobinson (Jan 21, 2012)

Well. Went out to check on the cray, and saw him laying on the bottom, not moving. Until I went to fish him out...and he had molted. Found him in the cave that I put it the culling tank, looking mad that I flushed him out of hiding and viciously trying to catch anything that went near him. Only two legs are gone off the old shell, so I'd guesstimate it was only last night that he molted.

In retrospect, it had been about 6 months since my last cray had molted, changed abt. 50% of the water, added a heater, and started adding filter-feeder food/iodide supplementation for the clams when I changed the tank and stressed her. So: if changing tanks/environments drastically, wait until after a molt, when they can adapt to changing water conditions.


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