Red Claw Environment

[Jason Eaton]

Hello guys/gals. I'm very interested in adding Red Claw to the aquaponics system. My family is all Cajun and we ate crawdads on a regular basis. In Oregon we would traverse the rivers and grab five gallon bucket fulls and eat them after boiling in crab boil. The rivers in Oregon ( Coastal ), are pretty cold in the summer time and even get down into the 40s in the winter. Summer the water would be mid to high 50s. The best place to find crawdads is basking in the shallow water in the sunshine. They always like to sit in the sun so we would walk quietly in the middle of the river and place our basket right behind them. Usually the basket would scare them and they immediately swim backwards into the basket. The rivers in Oregon were always flowing with fresh cold water and in most cases quite swiftly. Sometimes so swiftly that it would making standing a little treacherous.

The reason I am mentioning all this is that I wanted to ask some specific questions on the habitat we should provide for Red Claw. Should I try to mimic what we grew up with in Oregon or, since this is a different species its not important.

What water temperature do they like and how tolerable are they? Is it the same for breeding or egg laying?

Do you need to provide lots of water flow like a large stream to keep them?

Do you need to provide warmer shallows for them to lay the eggs?

How about oxygen in the water?

Are there some guidelines as to density in a tank allowable?

After loading up 5 gallon bucket fulls, they would only have minimal water to breath but we never lost any of them. They would stack on one other with no room to wiggle as we made our way to the crab cooker. There is an old rule with harvesting crawdads, which is do not harvest them in the months which have the letter R in the name. I suspect this is because those months they are breeding or laying or molting.

Lots of questions I know and maybe have been asked before. I appreciate the help.

[Lance Woolen]

Where in oregon are you? I'm in portland and raising redclaw now.

[Jason Eaton]

Thanks Lance. I used to live in Elmira which is between Florence and Eugene. Now I'm in Sierra Nevada Mnts, northern California.

Lance Woolen said:

Where in oregon are you? I'm in portland and raising redclaw now.

[Lance Woolen]

There is a fairly comprehensive guide to them. I believe it's called Raising redclaw crawfish. Or something close to that. Kind of obvious in any case. Short but fairly good. Don't remember where I found it, but one guy had it for just a couple of bucks and amazon had it for like $20 so shop around. Try stickfin farms for a link.

[Dave & Yvonne Story]

Great idea. We are all wondering and ready to try.

I tried 11 crays in my tanks .. But seems they all vanished. I know 2 died.

[Lance Woolen]

They are wiley bastards, always ready to go on a walkabout. Found 2 in my basement weeks after moving all of them out to new facility. Flooded basement and boom there they were.

[Lance Woolen]

Quick pic from today.

[TCLynx]

If you like the crawdads from the Rivers and streams in Oregon so much, why not raise them in your system since you already know what they like and that you like them?  I'm always kinda partial to recommending growing native and climate appropriate species.

RedClaw are definitely different and I believe they require warmer water.  I would have to recommend the guide on growing them since I don't have the information to share.

Good Luck

[Jason Eaton]

Thanks for the reply TCL. The species in Oregon is the Signal Crawfish. I live in California now so will have to check on legal issues. I also pinged Chi who said they need warmer water, the Red Claw. I'm at 2400 feet and even with a greenhouse the water will get cold in the winter. I will check into that species.

[Jason Eaton]

I found a good article on several popular crayfish and their preferred environments. Hope it helps.

Crayfish

[Michael Fruin]

Anyone know where tO catch native crawl ads arOund seattle? Michael in Seattle?
Michael in seattle

[Stuart Polkinghorne]

Anyone growing then in raft beds, do they eat the roots of the plants or can they climb out to easily?