Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Crawdads

well guys I got another question. Me and my nephew went down to a little creek from my house and we caught alot of smaller crawdads (maybe 2-5 inches) i dumped alot of them in my existing pond but like a few of you know i just recently built a one acre pond. it has some water in it and i was thinking maybe trying to establish a forage before i even put minnows in. what do you all think? has anyone tried to establish crawdads in any of their ponds? all info is appreciated. thanks ahead
oh yeah i am planning on stocking hsb, bg, and tilapia

I think if you were stocking LMB, you should definitely try. Not sure how much HSB forage them. I also dont know if the HSB will control the BG. You may have to add a few LMB.

I have crayfish in my pond and they have not caused problems. However, some species are known to burrow and this certainly is not a good characteristic. Mine never appear too abundant but they have not disappeared yet either. I cannot say for certain how much forage they add but I suspect the BG would happily eat the young.

Here is a link to a very good PB discussion of craws. It contains links to the SRAC fact sheets on crawfish and more.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000092#000003

My experience with crawdads has been nothing short of a nightmare. I embarked on building a 1.5 acre pond five years ago. I employed an engineering firm, did compaction testing,and hired an experienced pond builder. As the pond was being cut, I noticed numerous near verticle burrows (ranging from golf ball to baseball size) and expressed my concern to the contractor. He assured me that there was nothing to worry about and we proceeded to finish the pond. Long story short and three summers later, I filled as many of the borrows as I could find with concrete,realizing that working bentonite and soda ash in over the course of two summers had hidden many of them. While the result has not been perfect (I still had to create a drainage ditch sump pump recirculation system),I now have a full pond. All of this work and rework poked a massive hole in our kids inheritance. I am confident dropping a few crawdads in for forage is different from invading space they have occupied for thousands of years. But, I would to stay miles away from those creatures. I hope my largemouth bass will even the score.

Wayne :

Welcome to the PB forum. Very interesting perspective and report. I feel sure your LMB will get a large measure of revenge for you.

I was advised against putting crawfish in my pond. The reasoning being that we have a gravel type base with clay over it. The clay keeps the pond from leaking. Once crawfish burrow through the clay lining it is possible that the pond will start leaking.

You've got that right! Most crawfish will burrow 10' into soft mud, but I like another 5' for a safety margin.

That's just general info. More general info: Crawfish do not like to burrow into pure sticky clay, and even less so in sand. They try to avoid clay and sand by burrowing laterally (into the banks) above the clay strata. Only when the water levels drop to near zero will they burrow downward deeply into a clay bottom. They rarely even venture out very far into a deep pond. It's a jungle out there.

thanks guys for all the input. my pond is pretty much a bowl that goes down about 20 ft. after about five feet of digging it was all clay. not sure how that would effect it. thanks again