Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass 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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"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.

Thank you, I have Orconectes virilis, so I should not worry too much.
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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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Great video, azteca!

Judging by all of your recent posts and links on Pond Boss, I am going to guess that it is a wee bit chilly in Quebec this week?

Hello.

We've been freezing at -25-30c for almost a month.

Quickly the spring.
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azteca - are you thinking of using smallmouth (SMB) in your ponds as a predator which is why you are doing the SMB-crayfish literature searching?

I read the very interesting post about how smallmouth decide whether or not to eat a particular crawfish (we don't call them crayfish in Louisiana), but I didn't see anything there about a chemical excretion. Do you know where that info came from? Fascinating stuff!

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.

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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Chemical warfare !

Sent you an email last week.

Hello.

Yes Mr Cody.

I can't wait to play with them, like with my Yellow-perch,and make video
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Azteca, fascinating links. Thanks for posting.

Hello.

To catch Crayfish.

It would be interesting to see the difference between a trap that was used to catch Bass and another trap, right after being used to catch Bass.

Maybe it will take a few days or wash the trap , to get rid of the smell of Bass.
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I have never found a bass (largemouth or smallmouth) in any of the minnow traps I have had in ponds. In fact, in the Fyke net I use, I have never caught a Largemouth or Smallmouth (or Hybrid Striped Bass for that matter) in it.

Hello.

Then it's difficult to catch Bass even at 4 to 5 inches, it's just for the smell, it's special.

Well we can take Yellow-perch.
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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.

Hello.

A friend noticed that crayfish come to the Bass nest, if he put a light to prevent the crayfish from coming, will it disturb the Bass, or will they get used to it.
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Were the male bass on the nest waiting to spawn, protecting eggs, or protecting the fry? I would think it would be very risky for crayfish to approach during any of those periods.

Or were the crayfish sneaky, and eating eggs during the brief periods when the male left the nest?

A Cutting Edge article in PB mag a few issues back was on craws and their relationship with several species including SMB. The article was in issue May-Jun 2022. THE CRAYFISH RELATIONSHIP. West discusses use of crayfish in sport fish ponds reviewing some results of a few research studies having different summaries.