I'm having an approximately .5 acre pond dug in September. I have acces to a lot of broken concrete and cinder blocks. Planning to stock with YP ,SMB , RES and HSB. Forage will be FHM and GSH. I plan to make three or so areas where I will run concrete from top to bottom of pond which should be around 15 ft deep. Also plan to make multiple piles of concrete and a shelf in shallow water for SMB spawning structures. Pond also will have riprap around border. The pond will used for swimming and fishing. I plan on using a bluing agent to keep water fairly clear and bottom aeration. I want to minimize algae and plants in swimming area mostly.

Question is will crayfish (from what I read papershells will be good) do fine in the blued water and will they make the water very muddy or will it stay the nice blue color?
Also do you have to worry about burrowing to where it will effect the banks any?

I am located in west central Ohio and have a small creek next to pond and crayfish will inevitably get into pond anyways.

Thanks, Scott

We have basically the exact same pond idea but yellow perch only. The water level fluctuation with the rain lowers our water clarity as well as white suckers that we have found in out pond that must have been added with minnows.

Cray's do very well with the pond dye they will turn blueish as they get older but don't seem to be effected at all.

They may be getting over populated but I do not know at what level is over populated. We are seeing now this years young at .5" and last over 1.5"s. Just about every rock you turn over has a cray under it.

Cheers Don.

P.S. I would add the yellow perch first before the SMB. Give the crays a two year head start at least. I think its better for your crays as well as your SMB will grow that much better after than constantly trying to scrip up what crays they can find.

Donno, How many crawfish did you put in your pond the first time, how deep is your pond? Without have LMB in yours I bet that's why they are so plentiful.

We started with these two buckets. I would guess about 150-200 adults.

The very next year we had hundreds more in the 1.5" size.

The pond is 15 feet on the one end and 12 on the other. The 4" rip rap is all around the pond about 12 feet in length covering about 5 feet of depth.

Dono has a very good type of habitat for crayfish. "The 4" rip rap is all around the pond about 12 feet in length covering about 5 feet of depth." Some larger pieces and mixed sizes of riprap mixed in with the 4" would enhance his current habitat.

DonoBBD. Where did you purchase your crayfish from?

Rip rap is perfect for those little suckers.

I plan to put rip rap around the border of pond like most people do. I also am collecting as much broken sidewalk concrete from the town dump. it is from dust particles to chunks that you can barely lift. I also have collected a few hundred cinder blocks and other concrete blocks that are like 3" by 18". I am going to run it from top to bottom of pond in a few spots and make piles in different areas and depths. I plan to have plenty of crayfish habitat to feed the SMB.

I was reading some of the archives and it talks about the hardness the concrete can do to the water. It never really said what effects it had. Is too much concrete a bad thing and what problems will the hardness cause?
Also was wondering where is a good source for buying the crayfish from? I am in west central ohio.
And where is a good source to buy SMB?

Thanks, scott

Contact Tj here for the Smallies, he may be along shortly.

Tracy

Just adding my 2 cents in here. I got a 100 or so papershells from Smith Creek a few years back. This was for a pond half your size that had been around for 30 years. No idea on what was in before then. But anyways, now 4-5 years later, I've got them everywhere. I have low visibility in my water, but no idea if my abundance of craws has anything to do with it. I have some burrowing on my shores, but I don't think that's the papershells. I assume it's a previous resident but I'm not positive.

This time of the year is perfect for collecting the natural paper shell crayfish we have in our area. When the water level in the creeks drops and leaves small pools but there is still some water flow down the creek.

We use a scooper seen in the picture added. Its just a bleach jug with the end cut off and large 3/8" holes drilled in the handle end. Once you spot the cray just place the scoop behind the little bugger. Wave your hand and he will swim right back into the scooper then just lift from water. Water will drain out of holes and dump him into a bucket. The water flow is important for if you miss them or your moving rocks. The water flow will move the cloudy water away for you so you can spot the cray.

With three helpers we caught these in about two hours. Its allot of fun for the boys.

Years ago my uncle was raising Oscars for pet stores. My brother and I would get paid 15 cents each for them. Our uncle had no idea how many we would catch that summer for him. We had small kiddy swimming pools with aerators running. He would drop down on the weekends and get four coolers full. He was paying to much in the end but the Oscars really grew well.

Cheers Don.

Thanks for the information. I use to visit our local creeks often to collect crayfish, but seem to remember rarely coming across papershells. More often than not I would get red craws which I assume now are form of red swamp variety.

How do you think a pond linar would hold up against crayfish? Would they be able to dig through it?

I don't expect they could dig through a pond liner but these ones that I have seen that you guys can get down south wow I don't know how much power they have digging.

Another question. I should have my pond done in September sometime. Looks like you can get softshells thru September from smithcreek. How much water is needed to add the crayfish prior to winter. Not sure how much rainwater will be accumulated by then. Concrete structure will be in place as soon as pond completed. Will be some piles in deep parts with some also running from shallow area to deep.

Hi, how can I help?

ha there TJ, back on 7/21 xtrapper was looking for some smb, so I thought u might have them available back then or might be able to send him in the right direction.

Tracy

I will keep you in mind TJ. But won't need any until at least next fall. Need a hole in the ground to put them in first. Lol. Just hoping to get pond dug quick enough to get enough water to get forage in. Just wondering how much water needed for putting softshell crayfish in before winter??

Cody can help you source smb in oh. I am here anytime to discuss fishery dynamics as those are my species and what I specialize in creating for my clients. Happy to help any way I can.

Now that the pond is done I'm hoping to get my crayfish started this fall yet. Would 50, 75 or 100 be enough to start a breeding population for next spring. Can alway stock some more next year also.
And do you guys think they will have enough food in there with no vegetation? Going to try and get some rye going in pond basin but not sure how well it will take with the clay bottom. The sides seem to have enough loose dirt some should take.

Also if I put some FHM in there will that give crayfish something to eat ?

I bet they would eat sinking catfish food.

Edit: In fact, come to think of it, I bet a regular crawfish food is formulated for commercial growers if you could find a bag.

I was thinking about that snrub. Put some FHM in and buy cheap catfish food to crush up and throw in and maybe feed both.

The FHM will eat it without crushing it up. I dropped a pile one time and put a Aqua-vu camera down and watched it. The FHM found it in no time at all and I watched them attack it till they stirred the bottom up bad enough I couldn't see anything.

The pellets soak up pretty quick and they can then tear them apart.

Just make sure you do not throw the pellets in water so deep that it would be void of oxygen. Any place above the thermocline they will find it.

I put scuba gear on the first year in my pond and would lay on the bottom. Within a short time a school of FHM would find me and be trying to pluck all my arm and leg hairs off. They will be all over the pond till predators are introduced and force them to whatever cover they can find.