I have a big project due!

Freshwater Crayfish
Cambarus bartonii

A week ago we observed crayfish in class. Even though we only observed them for around 40 minutes combined I learned a lot about the Freshwater Crayfish. This report will be about what I saw on those 2 days.
When you look at a crayfish, the things that strike you first are the chelipeds. Chelipeds are the large claws (or pincers) at the head end of the crayfish. The chelipeds are brown with a few orange specks. Also at the head end of the crayfish are two antennae. The crayfish uses its antennae to feel its surroundings. Along with the crayfish’s small, beady eyes, those parts of a crayfish’s body form its head. As you move down the crayfish and towards the tail you come to the thorax. At the thorax are eight appendages jutting out of the crayfish, its legs. The crayfish has four walking legs on either side and like the name says, the crayfish uses them to walk. A majority of the legs have claws at the end but one pair of legs has a single sharp point at the end. The pair of legs closest to the tail of the crayfish faces backwards while the other three legs face forward. At the very back of the crayfish is the uropod or tail. When a crayfish wants to move backwards quickly, instead of how it normally walks forward it uses it’s uropod to propel itself back. The crayfish that I observed was colored an orangey brown and with very little change in color besides the orange specks on its chelipeds. The crayfish that I was observing was about 1.5 inches wide and 5 inches long. It also had algy growing on its antennae.
When the crayfish was first given to us to observe it was very jumpy. It tucked it uropod underneath its abdomen, as if ready to propel itself backwards. If we poked the crayfish, it would jump backwards. However, after a while it calmed down and would walk around the tank quite normally, but surprisingly, after calming down, it jumped higher than when it was poked earlier. Unlike most other crayfish in the room that day or the live cam crayfish, our crayfish actually used his chelipeds to capture food like the worm that was put in his tank. The crayfish sucked up his worm rather than biting it into pieces and then swallowing.
I think that a crayfish’s fierce looking chelipeds would help it fight off an attacker by grabbing it with them. The uropod would be quite useful as well since it can propel a crayfish away from the attacker. I believe that the crayfish tucked its uropod underneath its abdomen when it was poked a lot so that it was ready to propel away from attackers. I also believe that the crayfish jumped higher when poked while not alert because it was less suspecting off attackers.

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stormbind said:

Did you notice any discarded exoskeleton?

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Cleric said:

Good it might keep you busy for a while.

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RoboPig said:

since i only need to edit it it wont keep me busy.

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MobBoss said:

My advice....stop posting on this forum and get to work.

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RoboPig said:

if you saw the above post you would see that it only needs editing. now are there any USEFUL comments?

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josephstalin said:

You should add a diagram. Otherwise it could be confusing.

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MobBoss said:

Oh ok. At the start of your piece you say "them" but you only refer to a single crayfish. Were there more than one? Did they all look alike? You describe the crayfish well, but I would break it down so that you dont have just the single massive paragraph on it. Also, put a single blank line in between paragraphs. There are a few punctuation errors - I wont point them out for you, but there are some.

Hope that helps a bit.

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MobBoss said:

Also, put a single blank line in between paragraphs.

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Keirador said:

That's actually incorrect. I mean, I suppose it's somewhat of a matter of personal preference, as English has no moderating body as French does, but according to all respected English-language institutions, most notably the Modern Language Association, the Association of the Departments of English, and every single English college and university, the proper format is to denote paragraphs by indentation alone, without a blank line dividing them

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Keirador said:

That's actually incorrect. I mean, I suppose it's somewhat of a matter of personal preference, as English has no moderating body as French does, but according to all respected English-language institutions, most notably the Modern Language Association, the Association of the Departments of English, and every single English college and university, the proper format is to denote paragraphs by indentation alone, without a blank line dividing them

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ow it normally walks forward it uses it’s uropod to propel itself back. The crayfish that I observed was colored an orangey brown and with very little change in color besides the orange specks on its chelipeds. The crayfish that I was observing was about 1.5 inches wide and 5 inches long. It also had algy growing on its antennae.

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This report will be about what I saw on those 2 days.

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