P and I went to the pond last night; he practiced his drive (and lost his Avenger driver in the pond) while I dug for critters around the edges. I was looking for a leech, or some amphipods, but found neither. What I did find were some good-looking (relatively speaking) tubifex worms, and a new friend. I didn’t mean to find a new friend, but when I scooped up a trowel full of “edge gunk”, I saw little legs and a tiny claw, and he was just so cute that I had to bring him home. I hope that wasn’t a mistake that will end in his untimely demise, but he’s just so CUTE. I named him IDNR, since that’s who’d give me the fine for taking him (yes, even just one) without a…uhhh…you know. IDNR–ID for short–is a tiny (under 1.5″) Orconectes immunis and I just love him. For the moment, he’s in a 1.5g plastic container and although I found him in a weed-and-grass-choked, muddy-bottomed area where I’m sure water quality was poor (helluva lot of tubifex if it wasn’t), I was in a bit of a hurry to get him settled last night, so I made him a “stream bed” with fine gravel, a river rock cave and some duckweed for cover. I have an empty 10g, and if he survives, that’s going to be his home. Just what I need–another fucking water change–but ID is just so tiny and cute, and he’s better than a Florida blue because he’s mine. 🙂

Here’s ID, taken last night:

Now that I’ve seen a live O. immunis (I’m fairly sure of ID’s ID ;)), and know that even when they’re small, they still have relatively large pincers, I have to revise my ID of the other crays. I had thought that the small pincers were because they’re babies, but if ID has pincers this size and he’s about the same size as the other crays, then they must be a dwarf species that just doesn’t grow large pincers. ID’ing crayfish is hard enough for someone who’s been around them a lot, but I’d never seen a live crayfish until I came down here. If there are any in NS, there aren’t many; I’ve poked about every waterway everywhere I ever lived in the Province, and never saw a single one, not even a burrow. Anyway, maybe my first ID of the others was correct and they are C. schufeldtii, though I can find no mention of nor picture that shows orange tips on the claws of that species. For that matter, maybe they’re juvie O. virilis. *sigh* Back to the ol’ ID’ing board!