There was a brief moment today when we thought something horrible had happened to Alex's crayfish. Jen came into the room earlier and informed me that it had exploded. Looking into the tank, it appeared that she was right. It looked like it had burst. Of course I figured out pretty quickly that I was looking at a molting - crustaceans, like other arthropods, shed their exoskeletons in order to grow. The real crayfish was hiding under the artificial rock cave, looking quite rejuvenated.

Jen pointed out that Alex would have blamed himself for the incident, so it's just as well that it proved to be a non-incident. I thought it was pretty cool though. I never got to witness any of my own childhood pet crayfish (you knew I had some, didn't you?) molting. Better late than never, I say.