Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Giant Freshwater Prawn

I've been tinkering with the idea of adding Giant Freshwater Prawn to my Largemouth Bass pond, instead of Crayfish. Would the LMB be able to eat the average sized giant freshwater prawn? Would it be a better food source than crayfish?

-Bass Crazy

BC, as I understand it, freshwater prawns only spawn in brackish water. So unlike crayfish, they will not reproduce in your pond (unless it is brackish!).

I suspect prawns may be superior food to crayfish in that more of their weight is usable protein. Crawfish shells are formidable! Also, crawfish can move quickly (backwards) and a big one has sizable claws. Prawns tend to be less wary & less able to evade capture.

Again, this is just what I've read & heard. People who actually farm prawns know far more than I, and hopefully will correct my errors.

I do plan to raise prawns with tilapia in my forage pond next year. We'll see if it is doable!

I agree with anthropic. Prawns have less self preservation attributes. Their claws are weaker, when larger they move slower, they also tend to have a attack first attitude which bolds well for LMB predation. Giant prawns come in many size variations. Some just don't grow they never achieve full potential no matter how much they are fed. Others called orange claws are males that grow larger, but are caught in a prawn pecking order that doesn't allow them to metamorphosis into blue claw males which are the dominant male prawns.

Here in Texas we can get fresh water prawns delivered to the ponds but one usually does that in the spring when the prawns are small and cheap to buy. If one waits to get them larger they can run in the $10 per pound plus delivery cost and not so easy to get delivered. Here, we really need grow out ponds for them and they need to be feed every day. Crawfish are much easier to do

Tracy, next spring I'd like to buy some prawns & TP to place in my forage pond. It will have aeration & a feeder.

Would you be interested in doing the same? If so, maybe we could coordinate & get a discount since our ponds are pretty close. Late April or early May to make sure we don't run into a bad cold snap.

Frank, I would but I don't know if I will have a place for them to grow out by then, maybe I will, I am working toward that goal. I like the idea and thanks for asking. I have a rental track hoe coming out on the 2nd and have several projects in mind. I need a dozer too lol

I hear ya! Let me know if things work out for next year.

You are correct! The prawn only spawn in brackish water.