Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking my pond with crawfish/crabs, please help

I live in zone 7, and want to stock my new 60 ft round pond with edible food { but not fish} Pond is around 6-7 ft deep .

Can anyone recommend a certain species of large crayfish , crabs, freshwater mussels, etc that would survive and reproduce year round in my temperature zone/ pond type ? I want the pond to supply me with edible food but did not want to start with fish as my 1st choice.

Ive read some freshwater pond owners had success even raising saltwater blue crabs in their ponds.

Heres a photo of my pond...its new , so its still murky and not filled to the top yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cW5Q-izFVg

These would be my first choice. They will not spawn in your pond because they do need brackish water to re populate.

I do not know if they will live the winter in your area.

ty...looks interesting. He doesn't mention which specific species of prawn it is. I guess it would not be that hard to my small freshwater pond be slightly brackish, by adding a few bags of salt during the season the prawn/shrimp would breed/ reproduce.

Is this for a prepping food supply? If so, then you may want a self sustaining crop. Crabs and prawns will need to be refreshed periodically.

Fish are the easiest.

well, I wanted to stay away from fish, and try to raise some freshwater crayfish, shrimp, crabs, mussels as a edible food supply.

If that didn't work well, I would probably go with fish...probably coppernosed bluegills, they supposedly reproduce well in my area.

Rumme, I was perusing the zone 7 map and that covers almost all the southern states plus the western states and zone 7 (yellow) even goes up into northern Canada. Where you are in zone 7 will help determine if tilapia will overwinter or not (probably not if the temperature can get below freezing at times which zone 7 can.

However since your goal is to eat out of your pond then tilapia would be great as they offer themselves up for harvest every year precisely at the same time. It is a little late as your pond is dug but some advance planning would have given you opportunities to make it easier to capture the tilapia at the harvest date.

If you want to eat crayfish, the southern states seem to have a limitless supply of large crayfish and even sell them by the 15 pound bag at local markets. If you have shelter/cover for them in your pond a sustaining population can be had.

I have no experience with mussels or crabs.

If you are in the south (georgia, texas) heat can be an issue in a small pond. Aeration might be mandatory.

Thanks for reply. Yes, my area does get below freezing sometimes in the winter , but not usually cold enough for sustained periods of time, to cause the top of the pond to form thick ice.

I planned on trying the biggest species of crawfish I could find to stock the pond . Ive read that some species of crawfish , can grow nearly as large as lobsters, but I think most of those species are not here in the U.S.

My pond has a lot of large chunks of loose plate rock laying in it, under the water, so I figured that would provide good cover , and I can always throw in some pieces of pvc pipe for extra cover.

I assume there aren't much options for crabs/ mud crabs that are large enough to be edible and would multiply in a freshwater pond ? If I need to add aeration, that's not a issue...I have numerous solar panels and brushless pumps .

If I tried to raise tilapia , I guess I could purchase a large net to set on the bottom of the pond, and pull it out when it is time to harvest before winter sets in. If I tried Talapia , I guess maybe 40 of them would be a good number, for the size of my pond ..which is about 60 ft round and 6 ft deep ?

Would copper nosed bluegill and tilapia be a decent option ?

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I could offer some assistance but where is your pond located?

Down here on the Gulf Coast we have red swamp crawfish. These are the kind they eat in New Orleans. They really prefer a shallow pond that dries up part of the year, but they are easy to farm. There are many articles online from various state agencies on their aquaculture.

But...

You only want to raise these guys if they are native to your area. They WILL get loose and reek havoc on your native crawdads.

Another odd one to try is bullfrogs. They need lots of shoreline so you can't get very many in your pond.