Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Crawfish update

I'd give some thought to stocking feed trained YP and getting a good feeding program going. My concern with BG is them getting ahead of the predators if you are wanting to keep it a more SMB/WE pond vs a LMB pond.

If that's not the case, then stock the female BG.

I think you are even lighter on forage fish than you think in your YOY poundage requirements. Remember, the fish have to be of the optimal size to minimize caloric exchange. (expend as much energy as that mouthful of food provides)

Bill D. From my casual reading of the latter part of this thread, it appears to me your pond fish growth problem is mainly due to an improper initial fish stocking primarily in terms of balanced numbers, thus a food shortage occurred in 2015. Maybe I am missing some information for your pond history? Too few fish stocked can at times result in poor or not enough recruitment to feed the predators. Thus you are now "scrambling" to boost the forage fish base?. If this is the case, for other new members reading this, this is why we first suggest to first build a very strong diverse forage fish community before stocking most of the predators.

Thanks for the input. The only fish I really feed pellets to are the CC as they are put and take although I admit I am interested in supplemental feeding the other species if Optima comes out with a muti-size pellet.

You might very well be correct. A quick history. Pond was originally built fall of 2013. Pond was roughly 1/4 acre at the time. Now about 1/2 acre do to renovation in 2015 which probably disrupted BG spawning. Roughly, here is how it was initially stocked. In April 2014 FHM were stocked. By midsummer there were lots of FHM swimming around and 50 adult 5 to 6 inch BG and 25 BG 2 to 3 inch were stocked. They spawned maybe late August. In September or so, 8 SMB and 1 LMB, all around 8 inches, were stocked. In November 50 YP at 5 to 7 inches were stocked along with 100 PS 2 to 3 inch.

Edit: Was looking at my notes, I also stocked an additional 10 lbs of FHM fall of 2014.

With 3 LMB you no doubt now have a male and female LMB. This fishery will be very interesting to watch its progress as it ages. I am very interested in population of YP & SMB in 3 - 4 years - 2020.

That is only if you want them to be all one gender. It is little known in statistical analysis, but Murphy's law changes the outcome potential to 90% for the undesired outcome.

Bill, as far as the numbers of crawfish to stock, I am not sure but if I had a smb and yp pond, I would want to stock the craws prior to their spawning. my thinking is yoy crawfish or small craws would feed the smb and yp. so, would the psc you order be to large to feed the yp and smb?

Tracy

Expect the panfish to prey heavily on the newly hatched crayfish. Abundant shallow cover is imperative for YOY crayfish survival. If you don't see evidence of crayfish spawn in mid summer you obviously did not stock enough or habitat for them was inadequate. If you want a crayfish spawn this year you will have to get them Mar-April. In my experience most papershells are done carrying eggs in NW Ohio by sometime in early to mid-May. Locations further south will have an earlier spawn cycle. I would buy more crayfish than you need. The current bass and larger YP will 'target' your stocker crayfish.

See this for info on Craws.


https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/195/

...Smith Creek no doubt doesn't ship crayfish until June because they want breeders to produce a large crop of young for the new season before breeders are sold. Those purchased in June will be primarily adults and many of those in the fall will mostly be Young Of Year crayfish. I doubt that you will see any papershell females in 'berry' of those received in September -October.

Interesting read. Any thoughts on how a crawfish compares to fat head minnows as far as surviving in low oxygen environments?

FH have good low O2 tolerance. Craws have better low O2 tolerance.

Procambarid crawfish
are generally tolerant of low oxygen
levels, but persistent exposure to
extremely low oxygen concentrations
can reduce production. Juveniles are
most susceptible to chronically low
levels. When dissolved oxygen
remains consistently below 1 ppm
throughout the day for several
weeks, crawfish become sufficiently
stressed that they may stop feeding.
Levels consistently below 0.5 ppm
may affect molting and reduce crawfish
survival. Other important water
quality variables are pH, total hardness,
total alkalinity, iron, hydrogen
sulfide content, ammonia, nitrite and
salinity (salt content). Desirable values
are between 6.5 and 8.5 for pH,
more than 50 ppm as CaCO3 for
total hardness, more than 50 ppm as
CaCO3 for total alkalinity, less than
0.1 ppm for ferrous iron, less than
0.002 ppm for hydrogen sulfide, less
than 0.06 ppm for un-ionized ammonia,
less than 0.6 ppm for nitrite, and
less than 6 ppt for salinity.

Fatheads In OH lab study, females exposed to dissolved oxygen of 2.0 mg/l for 11 months produced fewer eggs, those exposed to dissolved oxygen 1.0 mg/l for 11 months did not spawn . In MO study, mean critical dissolved oxygen .73 mg/l . Tolerates low dissolved oxygen. An OH lab study found fry survival reduced at dissolved oxygen less than 4.0 mg/l, and growth reduced significantly at dissolved oxygen less than 7.0 mg/l . In an OH lab study, incubation was significantly increased at successively lower dissolved oxygen concentration .

BillD. I don't believe the statement of ""Most males die after the mating season, and most females die after producing their first brood."". Don't fully believe everything you read. In reality, it probably depends. I know some of my papershell crayfish are 3 yrs old. I more likely believe a longer life span than two years as info in this next link especially if predators are few to none and habitat including food source is good:
http://crayfishblue.weebly.com/life-cycle.html
says: A crayfish reaches adult size in 3-4 months & its life span is 3-8 years long.

Lifespan: about 2-3 years, but varies with species. Some live longer.
http://www.anapsid.org/crayfish.html

Orconectes sanborni Growth and life span - 37 months. from OSU study:
https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/22357/V076N2_073.pdf;jsessionid=8381253119CC757A5005AAD57BBD4008?sequence=1

Papershell crayfish are similar to rusty crayfish which have a typical life span of 3-4 yrs.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/RUSTY_CRAYFISH.pdf

I would stock them whenever you can get them. If predators will be present then stock more the longer they have to be in the pond before they "spawn". Every day they live they have a chance of being eaten by a bass. How many for a 0.4 acre pond? Good question. For me it would depend on how many predators were present and how much habitat was present. For starters, if you want to be sure you have some survive to lay eggs, I would assume that each predator would eat 1 crayfish per day forever how many days before the crayfish laid eggs. I caught a 9" YP one time with 2 two adult crayfish in its stomach.