After much research we finally discovered information on how to sex a crawdad, and though we suspected he was a big ol' male, we finally confirmed it. Apparently, male crawdads have two front-directed, enlarged swimmerettes, called Gonopods. These are used by the male to transfer sperm to the female from his 2 vas deferens at the base of his 5th legs.The female crawdad/crayfish instead has a seminal receptical between the 5th legs and a pair of oviducts at the base of her 3rd legs.
Oh and "Lobster Mobster", the name the kids gave him when he first came home with us several weeks ago, hunted and devoured the final minnow today, that we had bought in a group of 10 a little over a week ago. Way to go mighty hunter!
Lobster Mobster also is helping us recycle the crickets that end up in our garage. He prefers them still slightly moving, so we oblige by not squishing them too much when we catch them. hehe
In the picture you can see him sprawled out asleep on his rock. This is one of his favorite things to do. He's so relaxed up on his rock. He makes these squeaky noises sometimes, too. It makes us think that he's snoring!
Here's the link to one of more interesting crawdad message boards:
http://www.aquanic.org/discuss/craw.htm
