Have any of you added freshwater prawns to your ponds as part of the food chain or as an additional forage? I live near Dallas and there are now several farms near here that advertise them for sale as human food. They sell for about nine dollars a pound. I would have to try and transport them about forty miles from the farm to my pond. I don't know very much about them except they make great bait. I have caught almost every species of fish in my pond and so I assume they would be a great forage if they survived and multiplied.
You might have a problem in that "live" for food purposes does not necessarily mean "live" for forage use. DD (IIRC) once bought a bunch of live-for-food crawdads which he used to try and stock as forage in a pond. They were apparently past the point of no return and only served as forage for the raccoons.
So your fish might have to eat the prawns "right now."
I didn't know there were any prawn farms around here I wonder how you would keep them from being a quick, expensive snack?
Dave one of the farms is in Rhome just north of the speedway. I don't know anything about raising them but I do know fish really like to eat them when they are on my hook! I may try and call the farm tommorrow and get some information about reproduction and growth rates.
Prawns will do best in weedy ponds. the prawns will not survive very long in clean bottom ponds or even in ponds with good amounts of structure AND with predators such as bass. They are pretty vulnerable to predation. Do not expect them to reproduce in your pond. It takes a fairly high salinity content for reproduction to occur successfully. The link that ewest provided should verify this salinity-reproduction relationship.
James, have you considered ghost shrimp? The ponds and lakes I have fished that had ghost shrimp seem to have very healthy fish.
I just spoke with the owner of the prawn farm and once again we have a species that can't survive below 52 degrees. I wonder if you could raise tilapia and prawns in Meadowlarks hot tub together?
James,
I have freshwater shrimp in my ponds that survive and even thrive. The winters do not seem to kill them, but I am south of you but do get 50 degree water temps on occasion. Mine, like Gambusia, are there naturally and have never been stocked. They are very small criters and like Bill C. says, they require some weeds to survive predation...consistent with my grass carp low stocking strategy, the presence of shrimp and Gambusia and whatever else resides in those weeds are really a bonus for the food chain and best of all, its free, requires no chemicals or maintenance.
As to the hot tub....no room in the inn...all space going to Pacus this winter.
Judging from the way they look, pacus would seem to have difficulties coexisting with other species. If nothing else they'd frighten the other fish to death with their sheer size.
I tried them last year. I picked them up east of Fort Worth and drove them back home in an oxygenated freezer that I rigged up. They made the 250 mile trip with little problem. Here is what I found. They need highly oxygenated water and don't like cold temps. This is where I got them
http://www.aquacultureoftexas.com/Grow but will not reproduce, they need brackish water for that.
Good luck
Hey, Texas can you tell us alittle more about your experence? How long did they last? Did they ever get big enough to eat? If they did get big enough to eat how many made it that far. How many did you put in the pond? Thanks, John
It's a short story since I put them in my smaller pond and had a turnover in that pond about 3 months later. If mmeory serves me I stocked them in late March and the wind stopped blowing for about two weeks that year and the pond turned over. No way to get aeration to that one without $$$. Stocked several thousand 60 day juvies and everything was going good until then. After the coon buffet on dead ones bodies where found the size small gulf shrimp. If they had made it though the summer they would have been good size. Not going to try it again until I have a pond that I can aerate. To many projects ahead of that though.