Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Crayfish for human consumption.

Hello.

I know that in Louisiana they eat lot of crayfish, this summer I ate a lot, Wow it's very good.

Are there members here who raise crayfish for human consumption.

A+

Yes. Northern / Virile / Northern Fantail Orconectes virilis I am growing in a 2.5 acre reservoir devoid of crayfish eating fish. We can get a few hundred pounds from this effort although currently they
are stunted. Soon I will be raising Calico / Paper Shell / Pink Claw Orconectes immunis in a 1/10 acre pond. Some farmers I work with also culture White River Crawfish Procambarus acutus (minor component of what is called Louisiana Crawfish). If you are in Quebec, then Northern Crayfish is your goto critter and you could do a lot to promote production despite short growing season.

Years ago I belonged to a scuba diving club that at an annual get together one of the dives was a night dive for crayfish. Prizes for largest, most, etc. So everyone that wanted to could participate it was open for both scuba and snorkeling.

We would go out for a designated amount of time into Tablerock lake with lights and collect as many as possible of all sizes from bite size to fairly large.

Then after counts were made and prizes awarded they would all be dropped into a boiling pot with some crab boil spice. They would come out blazing red color and look just like small lobsters. My wife loves them but I am not a lobster fan so they were just "ok" for me. But they always got consumed with none left over. To me they taste a lot like lobster.

I have eaten commercially grown crawfish that tasted like mud. Don't know if it was the variety, what they were fed, poorly prepared or what, but to me they were unfit to eat (but I do not like most cajun food so that might also explain it). To me they tasted nothing like the lake crawfish we ate.

I would guess the Tablerock crawfish were northern crayfish, but I do not know that for a fact. Did that kind of stuff many years ago. Northern crayfish is what we mostly have in our area in the local streams with another variety (devil crayfish) that mostly burrows out in the fields and in swampy ground.

The big pretty green one in Table Rock are most likely Long Pincered Crayfish Orconectes longidigitus. It is tied for largest in North America. Similar looking Spothand Crayfish Orconectes punctimanus also present but does not get nearly as large.


What is currently called Northern Crayfish in much of Kansas is not Northern Crayfish, rather something similar that may not be described yet. Many species of crayfish await proper description and currently are lumped in another species.

That's really interesting. I did quite a bit of reading a year or two ago trying to figure out what we had locally to see if I wanted some in my ponds. So you are saying that although what published information says we have Northern's, they are not really northern's.

It has been thirty plus years ago since I did that in Tablerock (hwy 13 area) and crayfish were just crayfish (crawdads) to me at the time. But I do remember the guys on scuba out in deeper water (10' or so, maybe 15) found some really large ones. I had my 7 or 8 year old son with me so we just snorkeled and stayed in 2-5' of water. We mostly caught ones 1-3" long. We did really good on the numbers - seems like something over 100. The guys out in deeper water did not get so many but got much larger ones.

Even the little ones were good eating. The small tail kind of like the size of popcorn shrimp. Some would suck the eyes and head. Not me. I was kind of a hamburger type guy back then.

So it may well been two different varieties that were being brought in.

I take my students about twice per yer to Bull Shoals in same drainage with same crayfish assemblage. Species we get into include the following:

Ozark Crayfish
Ringed Crayfish
Spothand Crayfish
Long-pincered Crayfish (6" body easy)


Some of the internet information does not appear to be correct, even on the state run site in Missouri. I do not know what is up with that.

There may be some Northern Crayfish in Kansas. Most I have seen were very similar, but not. Even in Missouri we have two versions of Northern Crayfish and both differ in one way or another from Northerns in more eastern states.

Hello

The ones I have (Orconecte virilis).

I have them in all my pond with the Perch, I will make a pond just for crayfish, it is too good, the family appreciated.

A+

Consider adding some loose hay around perimeter of pond in sunlit areas once water temperature get above 50 F. That will ramp up forage abundance and may promote warmer spots crayfish can use. Mixed hay would be my first choice with some of mix being a legume if any raised that far north.

Hello.

Crayfish eat hay wow.

Also what do you think giving them (fresh grass clippings), I have a lot.

Thank you.
A+

They eat it, but not directly. The food web that develops on the decomposing matter is made up of bacteria, fungi, protozoans, microscopic plants and invertebrates that are all consumed by the crayfish. Grass clippings may break down to quickly. Part what makes hay work, much like with rice stubble much further south, is the hay stems provide structure upon which the food web develops. The structure provides a lot of additional surface area the crayfish can glean and also enables them to space out vertically as well.

Does anybody know of a source for White River Crayfish that ships to Illinois? I would like to try some in my pond. My thought is they would provide a more substantial meal than papershells for my predators. I have good cover in the form of piles of broken concrete slabs and boulders already in place.

Check with Logan Hollow Fish Farm.

766 Otter Slough Road
Gorham, Illinois 62940
(618)684-4004
www.loganhollow.com
email : loganhollowfishfarm@gmail.com

Thanks Jim!

I sent Logan Hollow an e-mail. I'll close the loop on this post with their response once they reply.

Bill D.

We love catching them in CO. Pretty sure they are Northerns. Here are a couple from our last trip. I am always amazed how big they get out there.

You can get them to about 60 g, roughly size in picture above, within a growing season if forage good and water does not get too warm. Challenge with keeping them from getting too hot for many is water depth usually involved makes getting to food in water column more difficult.

Hello.

In Québec the demand is not very strong, it could perhaps be a future market.

The crayfish come from the import (U.S.A), the rest comes from local.

To my knowledge there is no breeding in Québec, the local crayfish come mostly from lake (St-Pierre ) on the St-Lawrence river.

A+

I seem to recall some information about the importance of water PH as it has some kind of effect on crayfish molting.

Anyone heard something similar?

Hello.

The crayfish we have.

Cambarus bartoni
''' robustus


Orconectes immunis
''' limosus
''' obscurus
''' propinquus
''' rusticus
''' virilis

A+