# CPO's (Cambarellus patzcuarensis sp "orange")- CPO



## DarrylR (Dec 5, 2007)

Got 5 of these little buggers and they are cute :3. They are escape artists, and I even created a wall to separate them in my 20 gallon long tank. Some how a few always manage to get on the other side, so I gave up and opened up a pathway. They grow up to be an 1", and have been told females tend to fight a lot mainly during molting. And lots of hidey holes is needed, bought terra cotta pots and PVC piping.

I saw one about 3/4" size hanging from a water lettuce floater. The 1" who looks to be the biggest and hoping female really is substrate bound and doesn't like climbing high plants.

Inhabitants with Thai MicroCrabs, CRS, RCS,CPD's, and a clown killie.

Best picture out of 20 lol, and of the same crawfish. Only one I saw out and about, than the other 4.


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Do they fight at all with crs?


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## DarrylR (Dec 5, 2007)

The 1" long CPO roams the tank and all the shrimp jump away.

Seems only the CPO's fight with each other, they are pretty hilarious. You will see one CPO tailing another CPO, than all of a sudden the big 1" CPO comes out of the java moss ball and runs after the other 2 and than they run away. 

The smaller CPO's whenever they run into a shrimp, either one jumps out of the way, sometimes both at the same time. 

Forgot to add Thai Microcrabs, the CPO will walk on top of the crabs and neither one cares.


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Haha sounds like a fun tank to watch, you have some cool species in that tank.

Do your microcrabs breed?


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## DarrylR (Dec 5, 2007)

Knotty Bitz said:


> Haha sounds like a fun tank to watch, you have some cool species in that tank.
> 
> Do your microcrabs breed?


Making a thread as I type this post, found eggs today !


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

Nice, Ive got 1st dibs on eggs if you decide to sell them. lol


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## DarrylR (Dec 5, 2007)

Saw my CPO's breed today! Pity my first shot didn't have macro turned on .


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## DarrylR (Dec 5, 2007)

The pictures above, I believe is of the SECOND female and the first one was dead somewhere until the male brought the body to the front of the tank.

Sadly I found one female dead. The male was breeding with the female and I noticed he was getting rough and was flipping her around everywhere. I separated the male from the female and she was not moving, and was a pale whitish color, her tail was also coiled into her body. I picked her up and she was lifeless, and was still coiled. I left her on top of a java moss ball, and came back to the tank 5 minutes later to find the male again breeding with the dead carcass.

I have now removed the dead female. And unsure if I am happy or sad to see the male has found another female to breed with. They were both in the position and the female fought him off and swam away.

My thoughts why this female was weak, because last night I found huge CPO molt, and maybe this was the deads females molt and was super weak and was still recuperating. This female was a monster more than an inch, and now lying dead in a mcdonalds ketchup to go container :/.

I snapped a ton of pictures thinking they were breeding, but I don't think I wanna post a male CPO sexxing a dead female -___-.

HOPEFULLY, the second female and the other 3 CPO in the tank, one actually lives to get berried and hatch their crawbabies.

5 CPO:
1 female (dead)
1 female
1 male
1 xx (unsure)
1 xx (unsure)


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## Nymsley (Mar 24, 2009)

Despite what planetinverts or whichever site propagated this, the name should be _Cambarellus patzcuarensis *var.* orange_.

Think about it for a while. sp stands for "species" which is already named as _patzcuarensis_. The "var. orange" tells us that this is an orange variation of that species.

Sorry that your female died and good luck with the new pairing.


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

I'm sorry, the molting would explain it. I am glad that humans do not molt. haha


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