Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

www.marbledcrayfish.com

Some of you may know about these already. Seem like a possible sustainable, food source. May be invasive though.

TXPower

Sounds like a terrifyingly dangerous creature if it were to ever get loose into fresh water.

However, it also sounds like a handy feed creature to have.

Have you contact them yet? Looks like they are charging around $40 each or 3 for $100 plus shipping currently.

Wow, interesting creature!

I will wait to see what TPWD says about them, as I said when I posted, they may be very invasive and I wouldn't want to be responsible for an ecological catastrophy. I must say however, they seem like a great, possibly inexhaustible food source.

TX

Never trust something or someone that isn't getting sex.

another site :
http://marmorkrebs.org/
plus wiki :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmorkrebs

that first site looks like such a scam I was gonna call seamonkeys on this one , but it looks like theyre real and can stand low temps , possible great food to grow alongside , then feed to , trout

ARe those marmorkrebs edible for humans?

Yes, they are. I heard they taste just like other crayfish, they're a bit small though.

They're pretty popular in the Netherlands with aquarium people, even though they eat just about everything (including the plants in most aquariums).

Yes, they can be pests in the wild. But I read that (at least in the Netherlands) they're not as much of a problem as the bigger P. clarkii (Louisiana crayfish). I wouldn't know why though; they seem to reproduce faster..

I read about somebody who had a single marmorkrebs that got about 300 babies But they're teritorial so unless you have a huge tank with lots of edible stuff only about 15-30 will survive. But when they get babies at the age of about 6 months....

Anyways, I'm seriously considering getting some! If they don't work out I can always feed them to the fish. But I'll definitely keep in mind that they're escape artists like all other crayfish; I really don't want them destroying the ecosystem in a local ditch



(Also, I think this topic can be combined with viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1851 into a single topic.)

I think I just found out why the Marmorkrebs isn't as much of a pest in Europe as you'd expect. Even though they can survive in temperatures just above freezing, they need at least 15 degrees Celsius for reproduction. This means that (at least in the Netherlands) they can only reproduce once a year for a short period at the height of summer.

But under ideal conditions (20-25 degrees Celsius), a single mature Marmorkrebs can produce hundreds of eggs each time, every 8-9 weeks!
(Say 200 babies every 2 months, each getting mature in half a year - that would mean a single Marmorkrebs can become 8 million in only a year! )
Easy to see that you should be VERY careful with these animals in warmer climates!

I've talk to the DPI and we aussies are going to be out of luck for now as one of its family is on the defineatly not in a million years list....too invasive...If is on the bad list it is illegal to have in australia..if it isn't on the Bad list or on the Okayed list it is also classified as illegal to have as THEY havent looked at it yet....

Thanks for checking up on it. I also thought it was a scam.