A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Special care or requirements for Crayfish?

What are the special things to do to make a system good for crayfish?

I know they like some hides to use while their shells are hardening after a molt but what else?

How do you keep them from escaping the tank and turning into dried out creatures when they go for a walk?

Do they need a substrate on the bottom of the tank or are they fine on a glass or plastic surface?

Will they burrow through liner if you get one of the burrowing kind (mud bugs)?

What do you feed them?

How much space per creature since they tend to be territorial?

And what kind of water temps for the different kinds you grow? Like what conditions do the Red Claw like?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Karen Matus on April 5, 2011 at 8:42am

And can they be housed with other types of fish? If so, which types are recommended?

Permalink Reply by Averan on April 5, 2011 at 10:35am

I'm not sure what kind of crayfish I have, since they were all stowaways in the aquatic plants that I collected from my local reservoirs.

I've got around 10 of the buggers. I can tell you that they really love water plants like cabomba and enjoy hiding in them as well as filtering food off of the leaves.

My two biggest ones are in a 55gal tank with 10 small koi. They chased the koi all over the tank the first day, but have since mellowed out. In another tall 30gal tank I've got about 7 and they all live together with a bunch of mosquito fish just fine. The bigger ones bully the little ones at feeding time, but so far they don't seem to mind living together too much.

Permalink Reply by Chi Ma on April 5, 2011 at 12:40pm

@Karen. My Red Claws live with my Tilapia. I haven't seen any problems other than a little territorial skirmish here and there. As long as they have places to hide they are good.

@Averan. Native crayfish harbor Aphanomyces astaci some sort of fungus that is deadly to non native crayfish so be careful if you are keeping them with non native species.

@TC. I've got my Red Claws living peacefully with Marbled Crayfish. I have 16 Red Claws and a bajillion Marbled Crayfish living in a 4'x4' tank. As long as you make Condos out of PVC for them they'll be fine. The more hides you make the more density you can have because they pretty much stick to their own tube unless they come out to feed. the hides also give them a sense of security which helps keep them in the tank. When I didn't have the condos the Crays tried climbing out of the tank to get out of each other's sight. Watching them skirmish is fun. I've been feeding them alfalfa cubes as well as whatever the fish eat. Right now my temps are in the mid 70's. I have had mine in a bare bottom tank and they get a little skittish so I am probably going to put some left over Hydroton on the bottom so they feel a lil more secure.

Permalink Reply by George T on April 13, 2011 at 10:14pm

Do the red claws eat the marbled? What are you doing with the marbled? Thanks for starting the group. I definitely want red claws at my place.

Chi Ma said:

@TC. I've got my Red Claws living peacefully with Marbled Crayfish. I have 16 Red Claws and a bajillion Marbled Crayfish living in a 4'x4' tank.

Permalink Reply by Chi Ma on April 13, 2011 at 10:43pm

@George the Marbled Crays are pretty fast so they get out of the way. I use the Marbled Crays to feed my other tropical f fish. I will use them for fishing bait once they are dead and frozen.

Permalink Reply by Cooking Cajun on May 11, 2011 at 8:00am

Does anyone growing crayfish AP have plans on harvesting for eating versus bait? Nothing wrong with bait, don't get me wrong. I live in a fishing household :-)

But I'm Cajun and the thought of maybe raising my own crawfish to eat sounds tasty and I reckon too good to be true.

Thanks

C.C. (NW Florida Zone 8b)

Permalink Reply by Chi Ma on May 11, 2011 at 8:53am

I am raising mine to eat. The ones I use for bait are the Marbled Crayfish which don't yield enough meat.

Some Crrayfish Links:

Red Claws

Native Crays

Cooking Cajun said:

Does anyone growing crayfish AP have plans on harvesting for eating versus bait? Nothing wrong with bait, don't get me wrong. I live in a fishing household :-)

But I'm Cajun and the thought of maybe raising my own crawfish to eat sounds tasty and I reckon too good to be true.

Thanks

C.C. (NW Florida Zone 8b)

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on May 11, 2011 at 9:15am

Lots of our friends in OZ raise yabbies and redclaw to eat.

Permalink Reply by Miguel Afonso on August 29, 2011 at 12:10pm

Can you raise red claw in float beds or will they eat the plant roots? Do they try to climb out of a tank if given the opportunity? What do you recommend for stocking density?

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on August 29, 2011 at 2:22pm

I'm not sure how much they are escape artists, The guys at Stickfin might be able to enlighten us though. I'm also not sure now much they would disturb plant roots. Feeding and inspecting creatures living under rafts is a challenge though.

I think in Florida you would need an aquaculture permit to have red claw though.

Permalink Reply by Jon Parr on August 30, 2011 at 10:29am

Miguel, I don't have any rafts, but my babies like to hang out on the roots of water lettuce (floating plant), and didn't seem to harm the lettuce, but they did groom the roots of algae and any zooplankton that may be present. The big ones tend to stay on the bottom, and wait for food to come to them. Mine eat detritus, leftover fish food, and rabbit food pellets. I cover the bottom with thin wall sched 10 PVC pipes of various sizes up to 2", glued together like log piles. Most of the daylight hours they lounge in tubes, nighttime they are all out foraging. I had 18 of breeding size in 4 sq ft, sure I could have had 4-5 times as many with no trouble. Stick fin sure to give you experienced numbers, though.