Crayfish at Manatee

[Ed Jackson]

Anyone know what the white dots are on the sides of this crayfish? Are they eggs?

http://www.cavediver.net/forum/galle...imageuser=1230

http://www.cavediver.net/forum/galle...imageuser=1230

http://www.cavediver.net/forum/galle...imageuser=1230

[FW]

If they are anything like lobster, the eggs are under the tail, not on the sides.

[amphipod06]

Nice pic's, could be eggs, sticking out from the underside, where they usually are.

The female will carry them until they hatch and the younglings will stick around (actually to her) her until they are big enough to survive on their own...

Dive safe,

Celia

[MORGAN]

If they are anything like lobster...

I found 'em a little bland and muddy tasting compared to lobster, but nothing a little melted butter won't fix. And it takes quite a few of them to make a meal.

Mike

[skip]

I'm pretty sure the white dots are parasitic copepods. Copepods are the most numerous species on the planet, salt and fresh water. Many are cave-adapted, not all are parasites. Copepods range in size from microscopic to tens of feet long (deep ocean). They drill their mouth parts into the flesh and invade blood vessels to feed. The body hangs outside. they usually do not kill the host.

Those white dots are not eggs. The eggs would be clusters attached to the spinnerets, like lobster, as in this picture.

-skip

[jeandiver]

I found 'em a little bland and muddy tasting compared to lobster, but nothing a little melted butter won't fix. And it takes quite a few of them to make a meal.

Mike

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UFFDA
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Beano

[Ed Jackson]

Thanks Skip.

I'm looking forward to reading the article you're writting about them. Is it going to be in the NACD journal?

[skip]

Yes, it will be in the NACD journal where I began a "cave critter" series years ago, then was made "Science Committee Chair" and promptly stopped writing articles for the series! NACD wanted water quality stuff and so my attention wandered the last couple three years from what I like most about caves and what keeps me coming back: the cave critters...biospeleology. I'm still looking for the squealing pig thingies, and the flying flesh-eating predators from the "The Cave." With patience, diligence, and luck, we may yet find them! I mean if they can find shrimp and jellyfish in an 8-inch borehole in the ice of antartica, shirley we can find pig thingies in underwater caves!

and I bet they'd taste even better than shrimp or lobster or muddy crayfish - especially with a bit of tony chancero's!

-skip

[phreaticus]

They're called "swimerettes"....
"Spinerettes" are on arachnids (spiders),iirc.

[Kelly Jessop]

Picture of a crayfish that is gravid