u/Mediocre_Garage987

Bernie is happily exploring and digging in her nice deep sand :)

Edit: she does not in fact have a problem she just scared the shit out of me, thank you redditors for saving the day

She's so outgoing, loves to eat, loves to explore, loves to come see me even when she's full. She is invasive in my area and walked up to me, a full sized wild crayfish, and walked into a box for me to carry home. Three weeks later she's the same cray, posed beautifully for her medical reference photos this afternoon in her Medical soup of aqueon shrimp minerals, API quick start, and a dash of API anti-ammonia.

First photo is day 1 in the wild. Second and third are midway through her tank experience so far (20 gal long, 40gal hob filter that aerates through a plastic reptile hammock near the top of the tank, two big hiding spots, aquarium sand on one side and on the other large aquarium gravel topped with small aquarium rocks). At first we struggled with some ammonia but I've gotten that balanced, the PH is close to neutral and the nitrites are normal. The nitrates are a bit high.

Can anyone please, please tell me why she has a hole in her head. Is it shell rot, and what can I do to make her comfortable. What kind and how much aquarium salt would make a good salt bath if it's a bacterial thing? It seems like she carried this problem with her but it became more evident in the last week.

She's obviously quite old and lived outside for probably her whole life, so even though she's taken to tank life like a duck to water I don't know that she can pull off another molt. I'd love it if she could with my help.

For what, we haven't figured out yet. She is fed as much as she will eat twice a day of official crayfish food, a veggie type and a bug type. Nevertheless, for the first week or so she came out of her hide to petition for Something every time I came to see her.

Now she doesn't use either hide except to climb on, and when I come in she's usually shimmying upward between the filter intake and the tank wall, or sitting on her driftwood Observing. Why doesn't she use her hides? Is she too busy promoting democratic socialism?

NOTA BENE: My wife claims she's often in her hides in the middle of the day, and that I'm just seeing her at her active time. That seems pretty plausible. Thank you for coming on this journey with me.

These flyers are going up around town and I noticed no one had posted one here yet! The day should be cooling off by 5pm, but if you're walking from the park across the river or from Corn Hill I would bring some water just in case. Plenty of public parking on site though! Should be fun, music and dancing.

Western NY, urban yard with heavy clay soil.

Denim for scale. In an upstate NY backyard. Body isn't quite as dark as it looks

Photo of my 3+ year old Grove snail Rocky (yes Hail Mary Rocky, she waves!) from her first day at home in 2023. We've added a few more grove snails recently (we will smush the eggs) and she's been on a speed spree around the tank since, which she usually does when we give her something new and fun. Do grove snails benefit from peers of their own species? Is it okay to keep them alone?

(edit because she's older than I remembered!)