Fun Cave Crayfish Facts For Kids

The cave crayfish (Cambarus aculabrum) is a rare deep cave species of crayfish native to Arkansas in the United States. This species was first described in 1987 as a new species.

The cave crayfish or more commonly known as Benton cave crayfish can be found in caves in four different locations in the United States.

The species is most commonly found in underground pools and edges of the water stream. The cave crayfish lacks any sort of pigment in their body, giving them the translucent white color, and also have rudimentary eyes, all their characteristics making them genetically distinct from the other cave crayfish species.

The cave crayfish has also adapted to the dark, no-light deep cave life in many ways.

The major cave crayfish adaptations include low metabolism and reduced energy consumption, better food usage efficiency, loss of eyesight, and depigmentation. However, even after such major adaptations, these crayfish are at threat due to habitat loss, water pollution, habitat degradation, reduced water quality because of human activities, making them endangered species.

For more relatable content, check out these Arctic char facts and gar facts for kids.

Cave Crayfish Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a cave crayfish?

The cave crayfish, Cambarus aculabrum, is not a fish; instead, the crayfish belongs to the crustaceans species like shrimp, crab, krill, and lobsters.

What class of animal does a cave crayfish belong to?

Cambarus aculabrum belongs to the Malacostraca class of the family Cambaridae (freshwater crayfish).

How many cave crayfishes are there in the world?

While searching 170 caves in north-central Arkansas and 430 caves in Missouri, it was found that the range of this fish species does not exist beyond their distribution in Stone County, Arkansas. In 1983, only 15 crayfish were found in the deep ponds, and in 1984 the population is estimated at around less than 50.

The most crayfish observed in one visit are nine in Bear Hollow Cave and 21 in Logan Cave.

Where does a cave crayfish live?

The cave crayfish Cambarus is observed mostly in Arkansas, like Logan Cave and Bear Hollow Cave in Benton County, Arkansas. They are also found in the shallow groundwater aquifer locations of Spavinaw and Saline Creek watersheds in southern Delaware County. Different species have also been found in the Ozark mountain cave carved out of the Plattin Limestone formation.

What is a cave crayfish's habitat?

The habitat locations for cave crayfish Cambarus are along the walls of the underground pools, cave streams, or along the stream edges. They prefer habitats with cold temperatures and have adapted over time accordingly.

Who do cave crayfishes live with?

The cave crayfish species co-occurs with federally endangered Ozark cavefish. The Oklahoma cave crayfish occurs in pools and streams in the Ozark mountain caves carved out of the Plattin Limestone formation.

How long does a cave crayfish live?

The cave crayfish lifespan is three to eight years long.

How do they reproduce?

The process of reproduction in cave crayfish is very slow. The reproduction takes place likely only once in five years.

However, not much information is available on their reproductive science due to limited resources available to study them. But it is likely that the egg-laying occurs in the winter and early spring-like April.

The eggs hatch in 2-20 weeks and the small crayfish leave their mother in two weeks, making them very vulnerable to being eaten. Young crayfish are nearly translucent and reach adult size in three to four months.

What is their conservation status?

The cave crayfish conservation status has been declared Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

This is due to three main reasons or threats- groundwater pollution causing habitat degradation, reducing water quality which is putting the species at a serious threat; the cave habitat experiences direct threat due to the disturbance caused by the humans; and their primary source of organic matter in caves, bat guano, which are federally endangered animals and a decline in whose population puts the entire cave population at threat.

US Fish and Wildlife Service has taken action in an attempt to facilitate preservation activities.

Cave Crayfish Fun Facts

What do cave crayfishes look like?

The cave crayfish Cambarus are white transparent aquatic creatures with small, unpigmented eyes and long, slender bodies. The cave crayfish are invertebrates.

Their rostrum has a central depression with narrow margins instead of an abrupt short tip. When molted, crayfish are completely white and translucent, and as they grow, they get off-white or reddish-white on the abdomen. Its beak-like snout also bears spines.

How cute are they?

The Oklahoma cave crayfish are cute and truly magnificent creatures to exist in the fish and wildlife world.

How do they communicate?

The cave crayfish communicates by shooting streams of urine at each other. These chemical communication signals or pheromones produced help them to carry information about mating and dominance status.

How big is a cave crayfish?

The cave crayfish are invertebrates and range in about 2-2.8 in (5-7 cm) in length, typically 10 times smaller than a lobster's total length.

How fast can a cave crayfish swim?

The cave crayfish has four functional pairs of legs that give them rapid locomotion across the bottom substrates of their aquatic habitats. The cave crayfish cannot swim and uses the thrust of their tail to propel backward through the water generally while attempting to elude a predator.

How much does a cave crayfish weigh?

Because of the limited resources and studies available on this threatened species, it is uncertain how much would be the range of a cave crayfish's weight.

What are the male and female names of the species?

The male and female cave crayfish do not have separate names. However, you can distinguish between them by their physical characteristics, namely their size. The male crayfish are usually larger than the female crayfish.

What would you call a baby cave crayfish?

A baby cave crayfish Cambarus is called a crayfish molt.

What do they eat?

The cave crayfish are opportunistic omnivores. They usually feed on the dead and decomposed organic matter that washes into the cave system. It usually feeds on organic detritus, aquatic insects, aquatic worms, snails, small fish, and crustaceans such as isopods, copepods, and amphipods.

Are they dangerous?

According to research, the cave crayfish waterways allow mosquitoes to thrive, which increases the threat of mosquito-borne diseases.

Would they make a good pet?

The Oklahoma cave crayfish is the ideal pet for people who do not want to spend too much time taking care of their pets. The crayfish are very easy to take care of since they require very little attention.

You can have a lot of fun just watching them walk around in search of food or explore their surroundings. The tank setup for them needs to be done with clean, fresh, and pollution-free water with a pH level of 7.0 and a lot of space to explore and hide.

Did you know...

The species is adapted to cool temperatures and the absence of light very well. But they still cannot cope with the changes made in their cave system habitat due to human activities. This is the reason why the species is getting critically endangered.

US Fish and Wildlife Service has taken action in an attempt to facilitate preservation activities.

Oklahoma cave crayfish, which live at a cool temperature, are endangered due to the degradation and pollution of groundwater.

What are the different types of cave crayfishes?

There are different types of cave crayfish that occur in nature, with different amounts of information available on them depending on the number of studies that could be done on them. The blue crayfish, also called the electric blue crayfish, the sapphire crayfish, or the Florida crayfish is a freshwater crayfish species that occurs in blue crayfish cave.

The shell cave crayfish is a cave-adapted species with no pigment in the body or eyes, same as the Oklahoma cave crayfish, which are the smaller species in crayfish.

The Miami cave crayfish is another endangered and threatened species found in 14-15 sites in Dade County. The Santa Fe cave crayfish is a mid-sized crayfish with red-toned eyes.

The bristly cave crayfish found in Missouri is one of its kind species not found in the same caves as other species.

The blind cave crayfish have been recently discovered in cave systems in the southeastern United States. Besides these species, there are species like eyeless cave crayfish and albino cave crayfish on which insufficient information is present.

Is the cave crayfish endangered?

The cave crayfish conservation status has been declared Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

This is because of three major factors and threats; degradation of water quality and water pollution; human interference in the cave habitat in the name of adventure; and threat to federally endangered bat guano species.

The cave crayfish has a low metabolism rate, and the human interference forces the sedentary crayfish to get actives which further forces them to increase their metabolic rate when they need energy conservation instead. However, many steps have been taken to conserve the species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

FWS purchased 123.9 acres (0.5 sq km) at Logan Cave in an attempt to facilitate preservation activities.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these jack fish interesting facts and yellowfin tuna surprising facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable cave crayfish coloring pages.