Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose crawfish

Has anyone attempted to add crawfish to there pond?

Yep Beano, several people have.

If ya check under the heading "Corrective Stocking" you will find several threads on Crawfish/Crawdads.

Thanks! There are so many topics and responses, It's a little overwelming trying to find info.


Thanks again!!

Here's a crawdad/crayfish question:

I have a drainage gully alongside my place, 5-6 feet deep for the most part. It only has water running during/shortly after it rains, but it has puddles in spots probably 10-11 months a year, minimum. What are the chances there are crawdads in it?

I'd go check it tonight, but it's a little frozen right now.

I would say there would most likley be some crawfish in it. I used to set traps in small creeks around my house all the time when I was a kid and caught alot. Most of those creeks only had a few puddles during the summer and a trickle during the winter.

The pond i have been stocking filters thru a rock dam into a marsh.I tested the other day below the leaves by rakeing them.In a hour i put 350 crayfish in my pond.I walked them down to the other end and dumped them in.Let them run the gauntlet back to the other end to get to their home.

Don't I remember reading the why's and why not's for different species of cray's?

There's an identification and info thread here somewhere, IIRC. I need to look it up before I score any wild craws.

Rusty Crayfish are a definite no-no.

The one i found were all light brown.All seemed to have small pinchers.I would like to read that article on crayfish the does and do nots.

jsand13:
What does a crawfish trap look like?

follow the links for some pics of papershell crays
or, if you have less than 50 years left to live, look below.

Theo,
I have a seasonal creek in my back yard that flows from springs along the mountain. It is abundant with craw fish and when there is no surface water they burrow into the ground to find water.

Brettski's Papershell Crayfish Pics:

the link goes directly to the page with the pics
(at least it does for me)

Major PB Crawdad thread: Crawfish for LMB forage

Northern Crawfish info: Seagrant link

Rusty Crayfish info and indentification: rusty crayfish invader

Here's another I'm-a-Crawdad-Idiot question:

If a species of Crawdad exists 50 to 100 yards from a pond, might you just as well go ahead and put it in the pond because it will show up on it's own anyway?

Theo, your question posed directly above goes back to the concept of introductions or the stocking of exotics. What are the implications of doing this? Many of the well meaning, theorized or researched introductions have had negative impacts upon native species and thus up setting some sort of balance there or somewhere else. Many of the problems and benefits are not fully understood until the introduction has been made.

In the case of your question, since the species in question occurs in adjacent waters one should first acurately know the species name and second know the biology and life history of the species. If those two are not known then the outcome just becomes a roll of the dice. Sometimes natural introductions never occur or if they do occur then the migrating species does not survive in the new environment for one or numerous reasons. When ponds are small complete eradications are relatively easy, however in large bodies of water makeovers are a lot more difficult or expensive.

Can a crawdad move a 100 yards on it's own? I assume it can.

Oh yeah it can.

I'm planning on seeing what crawdads I can find in the gully next to my ponds this Summer, screening out any bad news mudbugs, like rustys, that I find using images printed out ahead of time. Then I'll stock the screened crawdads in the SMB pond. But if I find any problem crawdads there, they could well make it into the ponds on their own.

Some crayfish species are more migratory than others.

How about Rustys?

Not sure about them. I'm working on some additonal info about crayfish that I will mail to you when I get it altogether.

You da Man, Dr. Perca!

A recent AES mag had a bunch (150) species ided with a chart and some pics. Would that help ?