Can you tell the differnce between a male and female by looking at it?
Can they take over a pond?
Do they need shallow water or will they go deep?
What do they eat and do I need to feed them?
What will eat them?

ZM:

See the new archive thread on Crawdads.

That ought to answer some of your questions. Then mebbe we can get ewest and Cody busy researching and answering the rest, and add them to the archives.

I added to the archive with excellent sources and pics.

Male above - Female below - pic

http://aquanic.org/images/photos/la/d0564/img0044.jpg

Male right - Female left - pic

http://aquanic.org/images/photos/la/d0564/img0027.jpg

Pic thanks to Bill Cody.