Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Relationship between Smallmouth bass and Crayfish.

Hello.

Mutualism relationship between Smallmouth bass and Crayfish, does it promote the spawning of Smallmouth bass.

Do all Crayfish attack Smallmouth bass nests, like in this picture.

https://www.academia.edu/30029742/I...us_implications_for_bass_nesting_success
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A friend came ice fishing yesterday in my YP/SMB pond, and he brought some tech (depth finder/fish locator/camera). He only caught one decent SMB (14-15") and then a few 6-8" fish, but all were really fat. He also only caught one larger (6-7") YP and several smaller ones, and again they were very fat. Surprisingly, his tackle allowed him to hook a couple dozen 3-5" golden shiners which appear to be feeding everyone else. The water was murky, but it was apparent that here was little plant life even though prior to adding papershell crayfish, the curly-leaf pondweed was getting out of hand. Don't see much pondweed anymore. I think the murkiness is plankton rather than suspended solids. Update: His son caught a couple larger YP on Saturday.

Hello.

I find that the interaction between the Smallmouth bass and Crayfish is very strong.

Smallmouth Bass actually excrete a chemical through their skin, which mimics the smell of a crayfish. This smell will make crayfish come out of their hiding spots to protect their territory thinking it's another crayfish and the bass just waits there and gobbles up the unsuspecting crustacean.

http://underwaterfishphotos.blogspot.com/2019/02/why-do-smallmouth-bass-catch-and.html

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"The invasive rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) engage in reciprocal predation during the bass spawning season;. "


It is invasive and more aggressive than most craws. All craws will eat an egg if available and SMB and LMB love craws as a high energy food source.

The effect of craws (density) is a bigger factor on BG and smaller nesting fish who can't eat the craws.


INVASIVE CRAYFISH ORCONECTES RUSTICUS (DECAPODA,CAMBARIDAE) IS A MORE EFFECTIVE PREDATOR OF SUBSTRATENESTING FISH EGGS THAN NATIVE CRAYFISH (O. VIRILIS )

BYJOSHUA W. MORSE, A. K. BALDRIDG and L. W. SARGENT


Oberlin College Department of Biology, Science Center 119 Woodland Street,Oberlin, OH 44047, U.S.A.



Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Galvin Life Sciences Center,Notre Dame, IN 46556,U.S.A.

ABSTRACT Non-indigenous crayfish pose substantial threats to native species, community structure, and ecosystem function in invaded lakes across the globe. The well-documented range expansion of the rusty crayfish Orconectes rusticus is an ideal system to study potential relationships between the attributes that contribute to invasive success, and the ways in which non-indigenous species alterinvaded systems. In Michigan and northern Wisconsin (U.S.A.) lakes whereO. rusticus is replacing its native congener O. virilis it is thought that O. rusticus invasion may account for decreased fishabundance. However, not all of the potential mechanisms that could drive this process have been explored. We examined the hypothesis that O.rusticus are better benthic egg predators than O.virilis,and tested the prediction that O. rusticus would consume substrate bound fish eggs at a higher rate than its native congener. Support for this hypothesis would suggest that O. rusticus may be able to access a high-energy food source better than O. virilis, and exert predation pressures that could limit the abundance of fish species which might otherwise limit crayfish populations through top-down control. In laboratory experiments, we determined that O. rusticus exhibit a positive correlation between feeding rate and carapace length not displayed by O. virilis and that larger O. rusticus feed at a higher rate than their native congener. We also found that O. rusticus in laboratory feeding trials engaged in longer feeding events than crayfish foraging in situ in a substrate-spawning fish nest, a factor which could give O. rusticus an advantage in resource competition with its native congener O. virilis. Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that O. rusticus is a better predator of substrate bound fish eggs than O. virilis, and suggest that direct predation by crayfish may influence fish reproduction in lakes where O. rusticus replaces O. virilis

Hello.

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.631.3102&rep=rep1&type=pdf

http://blog.cdnsciencepub.com/predator-parfum-makes-for-unexpectedly-bold-crayfish/

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Nice looking perch above.
Those articles are interesting Azteca thanks.
I also have never caught a bass in a trap. Seine net works but hard without two people.