About this site

Planeta Acocil

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About this site

Crayfish, crayfish, crayfish.

Why Planeta Acocil? Because if you and I were very...very small we would see any crayfish (acocil in Spanish) egg very...very big!

How small should we be?

Well, the crayfish egg is about 2 millimeters (2000 micrometers) in diameter, so we should be much smaller than that!

How about 1 micrometer tall or wide?

There are "creatures" smaller than that. I've seen these creatures under the microscope so many times. They do not have "eyes" like ours, but they "see" or sense the big crayfish eggs. They visit them. They live around them. They use them as nests. They feed from them, when the eggs die.

Here I will show you these creatures. I will also fantasize, and make you imagine things. This is a Biology Science orientated site as well as science fictional. You'll get a close view of fertilized crayfish eggs during their development.

Most of the isolated crayfish eggs shown in this site have now grown to be medium sized adults and have reproduced at least once.

Welcome to the Planeta Acocil!

Here you can see a crayfish female in "berry".

Threat !

A woman mountain biking; Actual size=180 pixels wide

This is me, Enrique Aniceto. I'm holding a moderate big crayfish ( P. clarkii ).
Currently I work as a Lab.Technician for the Biology Department at Los Angeles Valley College in California.
Basically I work for Students,Teachers,and Administrators. But since I'm also in charge of living creatures I devote a lot of time to study and learn from them. One of those creatures are crayfish. I have been observing crayfish since 1986. First in Mexico, where I am original from, and now in the US, where I've been since 1989.
If you think you need to know more about me, e-mail me as I'm very willing to answer any of your questions.

Important facts about this site and the crayfish:

Fertilized crayfish eggs do not usually develop isolated from their mothers. The female crayfish attach them to her pleopods (swimmerets)with a special glue-like protein.
There, the embryos develop for about a full month before hatching. The female "in berry" may have about 100 to 200 embryos hanging from her abdomen.
Sometimes, although rarely, some eggs fall down from the mother and several macro and micro predators would take advantage and literally "devoured" them.
Most of the embryos I used where mechanically isolated from their mothers. Some others were obtained after their mother died, and few where found among the gravel while changing the thank's water.

Above:Isolated crayfish egg.
Below:Three weeks crayfish embryo.

Member of the International Association of Astacology