Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Crayfish question

Ok so I'm in the process of starting a new yellow perch pond. I stocked my fatheads and golden shiners a couple months ago and my local fish guy has been stalling me on my crayfish since I bought the minnows. Anyways he called me yesterday and said they were ready. So I went and picked them up this morning and they were all about 2" long. I checked each one for eggs and absolutely none of them were "in berry". So my question is will this size crayfish at this time of year not reproduce until next year or is it early enough for them to reproduce this year? Also I mentioned to him that I have been trapping crayfish out of the creeks behind my house for the new pond and was told that crayfish from the creeks will not reproduce in a pond setting. Is there any truth to this?

I'd be more worried about which species you have. Do you know which kind you're getting?

The crayfish from my fish guy are papershells. I'm not sure of the species from my creek but they are definately not rusty crayfish.

Dan F - I know the most about papershell crayfish less about the ecology of other crayfish. Papershells and I think most others lay eggs once a year and their young are now 1/2"-1" long, so egg laying for them or most species is done for this year. I would have to research about egg laying season for other cray species. Many of the creek - ditch crayfish leave the water (pond) and build burrows - tunnels often with chimneys where they incubate the eggs then return to the pond. So technically many stream species do not reproduce in the pond.