Hello.

Are there members here who breed crayfish for fun, and put them back in the pond in the fall.

Take females full of eggs in the spring and rear the young.

A+

Around this part of the world them mud bugs get eaten.... tasty lil critters....

Yep

I have done it for experiments. In most instances females already in berry where brought inside to incubate young. The young where then placed in rather large plankton cultures so they could advance through some instars to get more size. This was done to make so I had a better handle on the number of crayfish stocked that actually survived the first day. Only a couple of times have I pulled off the first mating through independence with crayfish like you have in Canada. The crawfish like down south are easy as pie to bread even in Tupperware bowls. There is still a procedure, but simple.

Hello.

In my small pond where I raise my Yellow-perch fry, there are always filamentous algae, but I control fairly well with tadpoles and panels.

But I would like to try and see how the little crayfish will behave and if they will eat lots of filamentous algae.

A+

In my experience, the crayfish, especially the smaller ones, will not do much consuming of the filamentous algae. Larger crayfish at higher densities can offer a level of control by damaging it looking for eats hiding within clumps of algae. That higher density of crayfis will be harder to sustain, especially with abundance of crayfish eating fish.

My plans are to add a bunch of them asap (if any survived this weather) to the pond this spring to help reduce some of the BPW and feed some of the lmb. I hope they will feed on the BPW. When I first added them to my new pond at that time, they denuded all the plant life.

Anyone know if mud bugs will eat slender spikerush?

It's been my limited experience that crawdads tend to eat the submerged plants more than the others and tend to really like the ones that float their leaves on the surface. I have struggled with starting APW and Lilies due to the craws. The APW got uprooted overnight after I seeded the pond with over 100 sprigs. I assume they are after the more tender roots. The lilies are affected the same way except they don't get uprooted, but appear to be damaged at the roots which hinders the growth that can lead to the death of the plant. They also put the hammer on some Mud Plantain that I tried to get started.

I have taken to growing the APW and Lilies in hanging basket/buckets off the dock to keep the craws from doing what craws do. You can tell if a craw finds its way into the APW bucket by the overnight loss of greenery...remove the craw and it comes back fairly quickly. The lilies take longer for the craw's harm to show and it may be too late.

I have always thought that they were eating FA at my pond, but it may just be that they keep it muddy enough to thwart it. But, with the absence of forage, I have seen CC fill their belly with FA...Craws could be convinced to do the same I suspect.

I have a common Spike Rush at my shoreline and the craws don't touch it.

Plants that have been established with a high population of craws are...

Thalia Dealbata,
Arrowhead,
Pickerel Weed,
Common Spike Rush.

The Jury is out on whether the craws are getting at my Water Primrose, but I suspect they are. It's too soon to tell as I just installed them last late summer. They did not gorge on it, but it is having a hard time taking a hold.

There are new developments in the knowledge of North American Cambarids. In addition to the genetic quirk of the Procambarus Fallax (marbled crayfish) which reproduces by obligate parthenogenesis (can't even cross with males of Procambarus Fallax), another species native to Atlantic drainages, the spiny-cheeked crayfish of the genera Orconectes has been observed to reproduce by parthenogenesis when females are isolated from males for a sufficient period. Also, in China, where Procambarus Clarkii (red swamp) has been invasive for many decades. Genetic testing of a sample of 175 crayfish indicated the presence of 4 clones where the odds by sexual reproduction are about 1 in 10,000 (meaning that these apparent clones were likely produced by parthenogenesis)

QA: Thanks for helping us with your real world experience on what plants did best in presence of crayfish. I like the pictures and blossom color of the pickerel weed. I have no idea if it will survive our MI winters but where can one find some and how do you get it started? Does it have to plant in a certain depth of soil? In a basket suspended or in the ground?

I know of a ditch on the side of the road that stays wet that has some skunk cabbage in it. Might try a transplant.

The only vegetation I have period is FA (I know probably not officially a plant) and several 'sedge' varieties and a taller probably rush type plant. I did get some plants that had burrs on it that I think are Beggars-ticks (bidens pilosa) or something similar. These spindly bushes are mostly above the water so they really don't add any underwater refuge but have cool purple colored tips in the fall and I was so happy to see SOMETHING grow that I just let them be.

Looking for other low growing, shallow water 'crops' for the tiny fry but not spreading/floating all over

Pickerel weed is native and common in southern Michigan. Emergent so in shallow water.

Love pickerel weed!

softstem bulrush is another I can safely say craws won't mess with... It's the only plant I had left before Crawmation 2020.

Edit: I'm still green with envy RAH...

I've had dates where the lady suddenly developed an interest in parthenogenesis. Oddly, things never seemed to go well thereafter.

Now that there is funny and IMO safe for PBoss.

Canyon - My Pickerel Weed sees little water level fluctuation. A 10 inch variation in water level covers the year. The top of the soil it is rooted in always has water covering it, certainly an inch or 2 at low levels and at full pool its in about 8 inches of water. I have noticed no difference in its health at any of these situations. The shoreline along my dam is loaded heavy with rip-rap and this houses the bulk of the crawdads. This is where the Pickerel Weed is planted...the craws must not like the taste as it thrives there.

I planted them after the pond dam was rip-rapped and filled. I decided to construct a pile of rocks in a ring for each planting. My dam drops off rather quickly hence the need for the elevated rings to ensure they were planted in shallow water, but not so shallow that low pool would leave them high and dry. The rings were filled with seasoned muck dirt from the pond renovation and the sprigs were planted there. I have added more muck dirt to the rings over the last few falls because it settles out of the rings and/or the craws dig it out some. It has spread out from the rings into the surrounding pond bottom and my hope is that the dirt installments will become unnecessary.

I bought mine from...PondMegaStore. I have bought a couple rounds of plants from them and the experiences were good. The Pickerel Weeds that I received were nice while some other varieties seemed a bit on the small side for the price. For some reason, the Blue Pickerel Rush (Pontederia Cordata) all survived while the White Pickerel Rush
(Pickerel Cordata Alba) did not make it into the second season.

Thanks, I'm not sure I ever saw this native in my area in the ponds but I need to keep an eye out. The purple flowers are they spring or summer flowers?
I'll look around online to see where I can order some pickerel weed.

QA, if you have time, can you go back to this link and help me with which species you picked? Which of the purple ones did you find worked well?

https://pondmegastore.com/apps/omega-search/?q=pickerel

I also lost my white pickerel weed. Lizard's tail also seems to thrive with crayfish.

Canyon - Pickerel Rush (Pontederia Cordata)...

https://pondmegastore.com/products/pontederia-cordata

It says good in hardy zone 3 to 10, so depending where you are in Michigan...you might be pushing it. Mine flower all summer with them tapering off deep into the fall.

As far as the crayfish question;

Has anyone ever heard of buying the next day delivery crawdads for pond stocking? To feed pond fish?
The ones that can be bought by the sackful live for eating.

I know there could be an issue of invasive but I think they are already pretty established in a bunch of states.

Just asking for a friend….


Is it feasible to trap crawdads locally and put in a pond to do the same?

I think the local craws are best. They are going to be best adapted to the climate of the locale. It doesn't have to be a lot of them. A good to time to seek them out is in the March through May time frame at your location. Most species of crays up there will exude eggs around then. If he can find just a few of them and a bit of cover for them ... they'll establish. The numbers they can reach will depend on the available cover and their predators. One only need a few pounds overwintering each year to contribute meaningfully to forage.

I think those crayfish bought by the sack are red swamp crayfish. They get big and if reproducing and recruiting they could be invasive causing problems of muddy water in your pond. Have a good plan of eliminating them if they cause lots of unwanted problems. Ohio native crayfish that are smaller are less likely to cause pond problems.

Do the Red Swamp Crayfish get bigger than these?

Red Swamp Crayfish (aka Procambarus clarkii) will get up to 5" body length not including length of claws, similar to beer can length.
Predation/Herbivory: Red swamp has been shown to reduce macrophyte density through feeding, and to reduce macrophyte diversity through selective consumption (Cronin et al. 2002; Smart et al. 2002). NOTE - Most any crayfish at high densities can reduce or denude submerged vegetation. The species also feeds on a variety of biota, including waterfleas, insects, and other crayfish (Gutiérrez- Yurrita et al. 1998). It's consumption of the egg masses and juveniles of the threatened California newt (amphibians) , Taricha torosa, the endangered razorback sucker Xyrauchen texanus, and the native toad Bufo calamita, is a cause for concern for the species (Gamradt and Kats 1996; Mueller et al. 2006; Cruz et al. 2006).

NOTE If it eats eggs of the sucker and frogs it would also eat other fish eggs and newly hatch fish in the bottom of fish nests. Largest ones could chase some fish off nests. Too many would definitely cause muddy water and significantly reduce pond productivity and overall fish production so instead of helping the fishery they could easily reduce the fishery. Cloudy water as muddy water hinders primary productivity and the base of the fish food chain.

Competition: Procambarus clarkii outcompetes not only other native crayfish (Mueller et al. 2006; Gheraridi and Daniels 2004), but also other native animals, such as dragonfly nymphs (Bucciarelli et al 2018), and amphibians (Bélouard et al 2019), reducing their density in the habitat. NOTE they can reduce the numbers of fish food invertebrates that are the important secondary part of the food chain.

Habitat Alteration: Procombarus clarkii can be a vector for spreading other nonindigenous species or transplanting natives outside of their range via commensalism or through their gut (Clark and Wroten 1978; Lovas-Kiss et al. 2018). The species builds extensive burrows along shorelines that collapse and create erosion (Barbaresi et al. 2004).

Them're some big mudbugs!