I am stocking a new pond in SE Texas I see alot about forage fish stocking recommendations, but I do not see crawdads ( crayfish) mentioned. Since this is a prime bass food, would this be a good idea to add to a lake targeted for bass? What would be any concerns? Would this add to the like;ihood of leaking from a man made pond?
Let me know.
There are some past posts regarding the stocking of crawfish. It is worthwhile to try to establish them now, this spring. They may populate, and they may not. I believe that the bugs are misunderstood...
We have a good population of crawfish on the farm, but they dwindle in ponds with larger catfish and bass. They stack up in forage fish ponds and we have a cook cookout every July.
Your wetland areas "should" help to shelter and sustain them.
They'll burrow but won't penetrate a dense clay layer. I wouldn't worry about leaks.
They can easily burrow 10 feet down to find water. If your pond or lake is always full, they should have no reason to burrow more than 5-6 feet. Most of their burrowing in full ponds is horizontal, and not more than 5-6 feet. I'm sure a few "outliers" will burrow deeper, but I'm guessing not more than 10-12 feet.
Funny thing about crawdads here. I have many crawdads in the outdide base of my dam where I have some seepage. I can always dig in the mud & find them but I never see any in the pond itself. I do believe the LMB are eating them all up.Many times I have caught a few & released them into the pond & never see any of them again.I was always under the impression that they liked rocky areas to hide out in & not all clay bottom. My pond is all clay bottom. I think they just dig in the mud to hibernate in the winter. I have been adding limestone rocks to the edges of my pond in various sizes to see if that will help them reproduce & survive in the pond itself. I also added about a ton of brick scrap under my dock last fall & put about a dozen of them in there.
There are many different species of crayfish in North America. Some only live in wet soils and don't use standing bodies of water. This may be your case. I woudld bet that someone on this site would have a link for crayfish identification.
Yes, the different species have different habits. Many do not burrrow but I am not sure how they do in ponds. Much of the research I have found is targeted at raising crayfish for human food, not as a forage secies. One potential plus is some will eat FA as "documented" in the "Earth Pond" book by Tim Matson. Someone really needs to identify the perfect species (non, burrower, FA eater, medium sized, reproduction, etc, etc). Id can be tough though.
Here is a taxonomy link
http://www.lhup.edu/tnuttall/crayfish%20key%20-%20couplet%201.htm
We just did crawfish last mth. but we can try again if we want.
From the search feature -- the link below. Just remember this forum is a big "data base" in the many points -of-light (each of us is a point of light) universe.
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000092#000003
JayMan - Thanks for the crayfish reference website. Good job.
Growing up I always thought they only liked clear water with a rocky bottom. We used to catch them all the time in the creek on the farm in Kentucky.
My wife & I built a new house 4 years ago and there is a small creek in the backyard. But there is hardly a rock in it and the creek is full of crawdads. I like them being back there except when they decide to build mud towers way out in the yard. We catch one from time to time and the kids really get a kick out of that. Something is catching and eating alot of them based on the pincers and torn up shells back there.
Visiting kingfishers will chow down on the crayfish in my ponds. One day I had the opportunity to see one in action. The kingfisher beat the snot out of that crayfish using my dock for assistance. Prime candidate for anger management.