Anyone working with native crayfish?
- Thread starter henningc
- Start date
My little brother has creatures that he collects from a nearby pond. He has three containers on out porch that are doing great. He has mosquito fish, crawfish( or crayfish, what ever you want to call it), and some type of aquatic salamander that reminds me of axolotal. In the crayfish tank he simply has some mosquito fish, fry, snails, native aquatic plants, and a filter. He changes about 50% of the water every two weeks. The crayfish have molted twice in the 2 months since he had them. Oh by the way, my little brother is 10yrs old. So for crayfish care and maintainance, I would say there isnt much to do besides keep good water quality and a food supply. His crayfish eat the mosquito fish fry and get a veggie wafer every week.
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I have raised several of the local crayfish. I live in central NC. Here are a few picture of the coolest local cary I had. It was an unusual blue one. Most local one are brown to green in color. I had it for almost 2 years. I used to know what species it was but I honestly forgot. I think it was one of the Puncticambarus species.
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Nice blue crayfish-Alleni I believe. As for the person with the little brother, sounds like a reasonable crayfish keeper. One word of caution, many native crayfish can not tolerate higher water temps. That is why you typically find them in creeks and streams. Some do fine in warmer water, but please don't just assume that is the case.
As for state laws, most are geared to invasive speices like Clarkii, the Rusty Crayfish and Cherax. These all tend to out consum, breed and compete many of the locals. Additionally, many states say you can not use them for fishing bait due to potential introduction of invasive lines.
As for state laws, most are geared to invasive speices like Clarkii, the Rusty Crayfish and Cherax. These all tend to out consum, breed and compete many of the locals. Additionally, many states say you can not use them for fishing bait due to potential introduction of invasive lines.
As noted consult local laws before doing any collecting in the wild, but unless the creature being collected is from an endangered species I don't see any problem with it. As noted they live in streams, which means current, so you might want to arrange the tank with pumps to provide this.
The difficult part is that they or their descendants can never be RETURNED to the wild after being kept in captivity. The risks of them picking up disease from being exposed to other creatures , and then spreading same in their habitat, makes this an ethical and biological no-no.
of course crayfish--or as my people call them, crawdads--are delicious. Mini lobsters after all. I used to catch them on a regular basis out of the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River near Danville IL for this purpose. It does take a fair number to make a meal but there is always the option of hors d'ouevres.
The difficult part is that they or their descendants can never be RETURNED to the wild after being kept in captivity. The risks of them picking up disease from being exposed to other creatures , and then spreading same in their habitat, makes this an ethical and biological no-no.
of course crayfish--or as my people call them, crawdads--are delicious. Mini lobsters after all. I used to catch them on a regular basis out of the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River near Danville IL for this purpose. It does take a fair number to make a meal but there is always the option of hors d'ouevres.
had some cray fish in my 50gallon. They were caught from the stream by apartment but I do not believe they are native. One of them was quickly consumed by my oopu (goby) and the other one is still maturing as I caught them both (accidentally) during their fry stage. I do not do much for him and I think he might be consumed soon by my quickly growing black chin tilapia.