Natural stream pond...crayfish problem.

[lagunabridge]

Hi.

For those of you out there that are familiar with the joys of a natural pond I would like to know how you have dealt with what I presume is, well, a natural problem: Crayfish attacking and killing relatively slow swimming goldfish (Oranda, Ryukin, Lionhead, etc.). My pond in question is approximately 150 s.f. so is large enough if not for the fact that the crayfish population grows quickly once Spring begins. I spent about 4hrs draining the pond and catching approx 40 crayfish (which I gave to the LFS) but this was hard and dirty work that is obviously not an efficient method as it is merely minimizes the crayfish population for the near term (in addition to the hard work).

I have also created a "crabbing" cage trap made of chicken wire which has caught a few crayfish but my sense is that this method merely dents the crayfish population rather than annihilating it.

If you have had success with controlling crayfish in your pond please reply.

Regards...


Some pics of pond...it's 2 pond actually, 1 larger pond is then diverted into the smaller goldfish pond as well as a run-off stream along the outside of the goldfish pond...















 

[stezatois]

nice looking pond. How about a crayfish lunch?

Sounds like a tricky situation really.

 

[carolinyens]

How about a stick of dynamite? I've also heard that you can take an old telephone like the one from the 30's or 40's thats a wind up, take two wires and hook it up to that part inside the box and it takes care of everything in the water. But in all seriousness, I think your just gonna have to set up more traps. If you can take out the bigger ones maybe the fish will take out the little ones

 

[petluvr]

Ever thought of selling some here on the forum there are lots of people here, myself included, that keep crays. Got any pics of them?

 

[crimsonmoon]

isn't shrimp a no no to feed to crayfish? because there is copper in them? try putting some thawed shrimp in the water and letting them eat it...?
idk, worth a shot maybe?

 

[arcanecircle]

how does the crayfish get into your pond? is there a natural body of water somewhere close to you? is that pond fed by water diverted from that natural body of water?

if there is a natural body of water with crayfish population and your pond isn't connected to it directly, maybe some sort of barrier to keep them from migrating into your pond will help.

If your pond is fed by that natural body of water then there may not be much you can do other than continuously trap them.

life give you lemon make lemonade, pond give you crayfish i can offer you a good crayfish recipe and you can have a cook out

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Get a crayfish trap and then cook'm up with some Old Bay.

 

[cam191919]

if you could heat up the water that would take care of them real fast, like 84 degrees. kinda a longshot but...

 

[247Plants]

Wow, quite the project. I would imagine diligence and time would be the only way to get rid of them. bait your traps well and check them as often as you can and dispose as necessary.

If its a live stream from a natural body of water that contains crayfish, then I would imagine it would be virtually impossible to keep them out of such a paradise.

 

[mellowvision]

It looks like from the pictures that your pond is fed by natural sources, and the flow continues past the pond... if that's so, I'd consider setting traps further upstream as well, so crays don't make their way downstream as often. this should make trapping in the pond a lot more effective.