What do these Crays Eat?

[Miguel Afonso]

Can redclaw crayfish live on detritus alone? What are their natural diet? Are there ways to suppliment there feed? Are commercial fish feeds sufficient?

[rj woodard]

Where can I get some redclaws to start with?

[Chi Ma]

stickfins is  a good source.

[TCLynx]

You might need to have the aquaculture certification or permits to have Redclaw in Florida.

[Miguel Afonso]

Yes you do need to in Florida. In fact, for any system with more than 50 native fish you have to purchase an aquaculture liscence for about $100. Crays I think a a little more regulated.

[rj woodard]

Is stickfins a supplier or a type of cray?  I am in Kansas so Florida regs don't apply.

Chi Ma said:

stickfins is  a good source.

[Jon Parr]

Hi Miguel. Detritus alone? Probably. I have fed mine for extended times on nothing but floating pellets. Eventually the pellets sink, and they do well on that diet. They love fresh veggies, just rubber band a rock to a zucchini and drop it in. Stick-Fin recommends 50/50 diet of rabbit food (compressed grass and hay) and sinking catfish chow. You can also double them under tilapia, just give them plenty of hides, or a screen separator, as the tilapia may develop an appetite for them. The best growth I have had so far is under tilapia, and using bulk cichlid food. The cichlid food is about half green (veg) pellets, and about half red (meat) pellets, and about half sinking and half floating. The redclaw eat the sinking, the tilapia eat the floating, and first come first serve for the detritus.

[Jon Parr]

Stick-Fins is a supplier, and thumbs up from me.

http://farmingcrawfish.com/

[rj woodard]

Thanks for both posts Jon, very informative and helpful! 

[Allen Pattillo]

I used to grow Redclaw for my Master's project at Auburn.  I always fed them a 35% protein sinking pelleted feed.  Rangen, Inc. produces a commercial shrimp diet  that has squid meal in it (gets very stinky if you let it sit and decompose) and a 'crayfish' diet (40% protein).  I would feed the adults based on a 3% of assumed biomass in the tank, which obviously is dependent on temperature (82 F/28 C optimal temp.).  You can absolutely sustain crayfish on a vegetarian diet, their digestive systems are naturally geared for digesting plant matter.  You could probably get by with as low as 28% protein without losing much on growth rates.  Also, if you can separate your crayfish by sex you can get faster growth rate, especially in the males, as they don't spend energy on reproduction.  I had to order my crayfish from Megar, a redclaw growout facility in Mexico.  http://www.megar.com.mx/ Unfortunately, it is difficult to do business if you can't speak Spanish.  Also, be sure to have all the permits ready and approved with the Texas Parks and Wildlife because they threatened to freeze my crayfish upon entry into Texas, even though the crayfish were headed for Alabama.

[ZUL FADLY MOHD ZAINAL]

hey bro i notice that you did your master on redclaw right. i was wondering if you have any tips how can i identified this crayfish species if its a Cherax quadricarinatus, i would be happy you reply my comment

Allen Pattillo said:

I used to grow Redclaw for my Master's project at Auburn.  I always fed them a 35% protein sinking pelleted feed.  Rangen, Inc. produces a commercial shrimp diet  that has squid meal in it (gets very stinky if you let it sit and decompose) and a 'crayfish' diet (40% protein).  I would feed the adults based on a 3% of assumed biomass in the tank, which obviously is dependent on temperature (82 F/28 C optimal temp.).  You can absolutely sustain crayfish on a vegetarian diet, their digestive systems are naturally geared for digesting plant matter.  You could probably get by with as low as 28% protein without losing much on growth rates.  Also, if you can separate your crayfish by sex you can get faster growth rate, especially in the males, as they don't spend energy on reproduction.  I had to order my crayfish from Megar, a redclaw growout facility in Mexico.  http://www.megar.com.mx/ Unfortunately, it is difficult to do business if you can't speak Spanish.  Also, be sure to have all the permits ready and approved with the Texas Parks and Wildlife because they threatened to freeze my crayfish upon entry into Texas, even though the crayfish were headed for Alabama.

[Allen Pattillo]

Externally, redclaw can range from a rusty color with red and blue markings to greenish to a brilliant blue to even a whitish/translucent color depending on their culture conditions.  The males and intersex males have a soft red/orange patch on their chelae, which is where they get their name from.  The male redclaw have genital papillae on their 5th set of periopods and the females have ovopores on their 3rd set of periopods.  Intersex individuals may have any combination of male and female parts.  There may be a taxonomic key available from some of the Australians to determine differences between the Cherax spp.  Hope this helps.

 

Allen

[Root Doctor]

http://youtu.be/q8eqF9kPSFc

 

The above is a video I took of our Red Claw crawfish. I have found they are content with detritus, algae and leaves from a mulberry tree. Of course they'll eat anything nutritious that they can get their claws on, including an occasional molly or baby tilapia but they're not too got at catching them.

Detritus and algae is good as they get that in their mandibles pretty easily. When lazy I'll feed crawfish (and tilapia) the same food I feed my cat, a salmon plus grain dried food by a company called "Wellness." No corn, no GMOs