Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Anyone trying to raise the American Red Swamp crawfish? It seems that they may be raised in high concentrations because they are much less aggressive and that they grow out in just a few months. These are just my understandings not necessarily true but I am considering my next system. I read over many of the Australian systems on the subject but was just wondering if anybody in the States is doing it aquaponically.

I will be interested in the answers to those questions too. I'm currently only raising catfish and tilapia.

Well TC, I was hoping you would join in on this question; we have a few things in common. Well I am going to move forward with another barrelponics system but plan on using two tanks joined to try to increase the bottom surface area. I also plan on using some local Belle River crawfish, they are the larger crawfish with the larger head in proportion to their bodies, our largest that I know of. I believe we have a couple hundred subspecies of crawfish in the US, but the differences aren’t as great as in our friends in Australia. In Louisiana the only two (with my limited knowledge on the subject) is what we call pond crawfish, which are the smaller but much easier to peal and eat and the Belle River crawfish, which are as I described earlier. Some confusion comes in because you have both in both environments and they are caught together. The Belle River seem a little more aggressive, but that’s just my perception may be because of their size or the larger girth of their claws. Gotta go now, Mow my grass on my houses in St Bernard Parish (New Orleans) I am rebuilding them and it keeps me busy every other weekend. I have two old bath tubs I now have something to do with. I also have a source for blue plastic barrels for $12 each.

The only aqua-thing I have seen done with American mud-bugs is the boiling water with seasoning trick.

I recommend adding a bit more red-pepper as most of the 'seasonings' are a little mild for my tastes. Boil your carrots, potatoes and corn in the same water after the cray-cridders are done. Don't over-cook the crayfish, they don't take long to cook.

Ron

Ah yum!!!
And don't forget cloves of garlic, onions, lemon halves and a box of that cheap Mr T sausage!!! Slurp!!!

Well I was hoping I could lure Rassd71 to post some of his knowledge in here but I see he hasn’t posted since February. Well I visited Stick-Fins Red Claw Crayfish website and got the idea for my crayfish tank from them, a little 8’x18” snaptite pool $17. Good bang for the buck and should give me plenty bottom surface area. I may set it up under the kid’s trampoline. They aught to love that, bout as much as fish in the big pool. Still have the containment question, do I need to separate them to get higher densities of crayfish or can I just add structure like lots of old flower pots, tin cans, slate, brick etc. Or can I just pour them into the pool? I plan on using one of my 5 fish aquariums for hopeful selective breeding.

I did some research and answered a few of my own questions:
1. I did read where selective breeding to improve crawfish traits hasn’t proved successful by Louisiana State University. So I won’t waste my time with that, except to keep a breeding tank.
2. The two main species of crawfish grown in the southern US of A is called Red Swamp and White River crawfish.
3. Newly hatched crawfish, attached to the underside of the female’s tails grow to market size in 90 to 120 days.
4. Crawfish 20 to 30 to the lb. is called peelers, 16 to 20 per lb. are medium or restaurant size, and 10 to 15 are called jumbos but are sometimes hard to peel. I always thought that the heat of summer made the shells harder. Most people don’t eat crawfish July – October because of the hard shells.
5. Also sucking the head for the fat and flavorful juices, well the yellow stuff isn’t fat but a yellow digestive tissue with a sweet flavor, I could have probably done without that info!
A few of my unanswered questions are:
1. How much of the calcium for their shells come from the water directly or out of the food they eat?
2. How aggressive are they in an intensive system like Aquaponics? How much structure/hiding places should be provided?
3. What density can they be stocked at?
4. Well I know crawfish farmers feed their crawfish vegetable matter mainly rice re-grown stubble. What should they be fed in a closed system?
5. I know crawfish traps have a throat that comes up out of the water to allow the crawfish to breathe when the density in the trap causes the oxygen levels in the immediate area around the trap to drop. I wonder how much dissolved oxygen they require as well as the other water quality issues with Aquaponics such as ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph.
I may be over-thinking some of this and should just make some assumptions!

i found these guys have a lot of info.

http://srac.tamu.edu/

they are more aquaculture based, but can give you a start.

Thanks NewageMnfarmer, that answers a few more important questions:
1. How much of the calcium for their shells come from the water directly or out of the food they eat?
It appears to come from the water which needs to have between 50 to 250 ppm calcium carbonate
2. How aggressive are they in an intensive system like Aquaponics? How much structure/hiding places should be provided?
Unanswered Yet to be determined.
3. What density can they be stocked at?
Unanswered Yet to be determined.
4. Well I know crawfish farmers feed their crawfish vegetable matter mainly rice re-grown stubble. What should they be fed in a closed system?
It appears to be anything from high quality fish food to rabbit pellets.
5. I know crawfish traps have a throat that comes up out of the water to allow the crawfish to breathe when the density in the trap causes the oxygen levels in the immediate area around the trap to drop. I wonder how much dissolved oxygen they require as well as the other water quality issues with Aquaponics such as ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph.
PH of 7.0 to 9.0 with a min dissolved Oxygen of 5 mg/L and below 3 mg/L could be lethal. I am going to assume ammonia nitrites, and nitrates to be similar to other fish.