Interaction between juvenile narrow-claw crayfish, Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz), and common water frog, Rana esculenta (L.), tadpoles or common blue damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum (Charpentier), larvae during rearing under controlled conditions

Abstract

Abstract Interactions were studied among juvenile narrow-claw crayfish, Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz), and common water frog, Rana esculenta (L.), tadpoles and common blue damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum (Charpentier), larvae during rearing under controlled conditions. Interactions among the species studied had a positive impact on the survival of the crayfish, but the differences were not statistically significant (P ≥ 0.5). The juvenile crayfish attacked and consumed the frog tadpoles and damselflies, but the juvenile crayfish very rarely fell prey to them. Only in the initial stage of life and during molting did larval damselflies prey upon juvenile crayfish. After 30 days of the experiment the interaction between crayfish-tadpoles and crayfish-larval damselflies was not noted to have had a statistically significant (P ≥ 0.05) impact on crayfish growth. Juvenile crayfish aggression toward tadpoles and larval damselflies was often offset by the loss of even both chelipeds. In the crayfish-larval damselfly interaction the loss of both chelipeds was three-fold more common than it was in the crayfish-tadpole interaction; however, these differences were not statistically significant (P ≥ 0.5). The effect of intraspecific interaction (crayfish-crayfish) was more a threat in terms of mortality from cannibalism than were interspecific interactions (crayfish-tadpole and crayfish-larval damselfly).