Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait crawdads

hello,
anyone know where i can get papershell crayfish in missouri or shipped to. i got small 1/4 acre forage pond i just stocked this spring with fhm & gsh. it would be nice to add some dads with them.

also,if i put res 3-4" in with minnows would the res gobble the minnows up. was thinking it might be a way to allow the res to get bigger before stocking in main lake of 5 acres.

the minnows have been multiplying like crazy, my wife feeds them for me while i'm on the road & now teasing me about not being able to feed them to the lmb & bc, refering to them as her babies now. LOL

i'll be siening minnows at end of next month when temps start to go down.
thanks, john

Not sure on the papershells, but others on here should be able to point you in the right direction.

As far as the RES gobbling up all your FHM, that won't happen. They will certainly feed on them, but what they remove compared to the reproductive rates of the FHM is minimal.

they recommend putting a few RES in with minnows to keep them healthy and the white and yellow grubb count down.

I have a pond that is muddy and took a net to it the other day and would catch 1-5 crawdads with each drag through the water.

Now what I want to know is how likely is it this is the reason the pond is so muddy?

Also would RES do well in the pond since it is muddy, I had thought about adding some to it since there are not very many fish if any at all in the pond.

It is a small pond and thought it may be good to grow some RES out in it with all the crawfish and I am sure snails are in there as well.

Or should I consider a different fish?

Please let me know you thoughts.

Crayfish when abundant in a pond as you describe will create murky, turbid water. There is likely no weeds nor filamentous algae in the pond since crayfish do eat plant materials. If you trap and thin out the crayfish they will make good forage for the pond with bass. Thinning out the crayfish will reduce the turbidity so RES will 'do' a little better in the small 'crayfish' pond. RES will probably eat YOY crayfish when crays are less than 1" long. If you can reduce numbers of crayfish so water is a little clearer, I would try stocking the RES. If they don't grow well then try another fish species.

I may try that then when it cools off and I can source some readears. I had also thought about trying a Drum experiment in this pond just for fun, but that has been put off as well.

What other species would you recomend I try in this murky water, if I can not get it to clear up?