About the Crayfish

1.Taxonomy:

• Kingdom: Animal - It has to hunt for it's food.
• Phylum: Arthropoda- Has an exoskeleton, segmented body and jointed attachments (appendages).
• Order:Decapoda-"ten footed" 5 pairs of walking legs.
• Group: Crustacean- Their body has a chitinous exoskeleton (similar material to your finger nails), gills, two pairs of antennas and a pair of maxillae and mandibles.
• Class: Crustacea- Have dorsal hearts.
• Family: Cambaridae- Largest of the three family of fresh water Crayfish.
• Scientific Name: Procambarus Clarkii.

2. About the Crayfish

• They have dorsal hearts.
• They have three small mouthparts originating from the head to the rostrum: the mandible, two pairs of maxilae and the maxillipeds that arise from the thorax in the region nearest to the mouth which work as touch sensors.
• Crayfish contain five pairs of walking legs, which is why they are decapoda.
• In the cephalothorax you can find the nervous system, circulatory system, digestive system, reproductive system, and excretory system.
• Under the abdomen are the swimmerets. Which are used for swimming and on male crayfish are used as sperm conductors.
• The abdomen is used for rapid swimming but, they swim backwards. In the female, the abdomen is used for carrying it's eggs.
• There are more than 500 species of crayfish.
• Most of the crayfish live in fresh water.
• When crayfish shed their exoskeleton they are exposed to predator attacks.
• The crayfish has bilateral symetry (When you do a transversal plane you have the same on each side, foe example: legs, eyes, chelipeds, etc.)
• The crayfish are omnivorous, meaning they will eat anything from plants to other fish.