I have now decied that I am breaking ground on the 2nd pond on our land in January. With stocking shellcrackers, Coppernose bluegill and channel catfish. I want to grow large redears fast and I thought that crawfish would be a great forage species for the catfish,CNBG and the redears. Since redears don't come up for commerical feed. Why not stock crawfish. What would be a great place for crawfish to hide and reproduce but not encourge the catfish to spawn?

I'd look into getting some grass shrimp as well. A little bit of diversity wouldn't hurt providing you have the habitat that they like.

good concern with rock cats could spawn as well. I encourage adding hay and also snails to grow bigger res. You may eventually have to stock bass to control their reproduction.

Where could you get grass shrimp and snails? Would these species cause the pond to be over populated with the species?

TJ Hudson who is a member on here and I found a source for a species of grass shrimp adapted to pond life. Fattig's in Nebraska sells them. TJ usually puts an order in for all members interested each spring so everyone gets a better price by bulk ordering. TJ is just a good guy and really gets nothing out of it but the feeling of being a nice guy... Snails often simply show up on their own. You can also collect them from the wild, but be careful as some species can cause problems. Also, the thinner shelled pond species are better as they are more preferred as prey by RES. I have at least 4 species in one pond with RES and the thin shelled varieties have gotten quite rare. The ramshorn species are less numerous but not so rare as they get bigger and adults are fairly safe from all but the largest RES which I don't have any right now as the RES aren't that old yet. I have also stocked Asiatic clams to add to the forage base of my RES, but most wouldn't recommend that as there are lots of unknowns with them.

Thank You!

IMO I would not use crayfish as a main food item for CC for at least two main reasons. 1. Crayfish are not as nutritious as most fish or food pellets (not sure of nutrition of clams which CC do eat). Thus a main diet of crayfish will result in low productivity and slowed growth of CC. 2. Crayfish are often small indivduals and numerous ones will have to be captured and eaten (expending energy) to gain adequate nutrition for growth. This becomes more important as the CC get large (>24"). Some species of Crays do get large, but I question how vulnerable these big guys are to fish predation. Crayfish benefits: 1. they feed low on the food chain and lots of them can be grown in small productive waters, 2. they are slow and easy to catch esp at dusk/night when they and CC are most active. A bottom oriented, daytime active fish that does not get real large should be a good forage fish for CC; CNBG may fit this niche okay. I not saying do use crayfish, just consider them a supplimental and not a main food item.

I agree with Bill but will point out that craws are very high in nutrition. CC do not need a high protein diet 32% feeds are plenty and they can use plant based feeds and don't need fish meal as much as say LMB , trout etc.