freshwater baby lobsters

laurab

We bought a freshwater lobster at the fish store and a month after we brought her home she had babies. I have only noticed four the entire time, one of them is not growing though, it is about a half inch long and the other three are about 2 inches now. Does anyone know what caused this? Also will I need to remove the babies from the tank at some point? The mom is about 4 inches long and the tank is 50 gallons.

fish_4_all

It depend son the type of lobster/crayfish. Blue and yabbies can get aggressive but they would have probably killed the others already if it was gonna be an issue. Can you get a picture of it so we can try to identify it? This would help us know if there is gonna be a need to actually remove the others or if you can leave them be.

As for the smaller one, it could be getting bullied out of food or might be a dwarf mutation. It could also be an issue of a hormone release by the others that may keep that one smaller but I don't know how much information I have read on this phenonemon is accurate.

iamntbatman

They're known to cannibalize one another, especially of some of the young lobsters get more food and thus grow quicker than others, so it would probably be a good idea to try to separate them.

What kind of lobster is it? Some stay fairly small while others grow quite large, so knowing the type will be a big factor in how many you can safely keep in the tank.