"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan
They are growing well. I have a few young ones, and have now separated out a male and 4 females for him to breed with. Hopefully I'll get a nice berry or two. 300-500 eggs at a pop is what is expected.
Catfish- they are good eating, like any lobster. No claw meat, but great tail meat. At 60 months they are over 6" and can be harvested. If I can get these to reproduce in number, they will make a great addition to my system.
They would be good in the aquarium trade as well. Put in a tank with white coral sand they get to be a great blue color. With the red claws of the males, they are stunning.
They are growing well. I have a few young ones, and have now separated out a male and 4 females for him to breed with. Hopefully I'll get a nice berry or two. 300-500 eggs at a pop is what is expected.
Catfish- they are good eating, like any lobster. No claw meat, but great tail meat. At 60 months they are over 6" and can be harvested. If I can get these to reproduce in number, they will make a great addition to my system.
They would be good in the aquarium trade as well. Put in a tank with white coral sand they get to be a great blue color. With the red claws of the males, they are stunning.
I wish these could be raised outside, but I think the cold tolerance is not too good. Maybe I can find anoth type of Crayfish to work with.
Sure. Check out the red swamp crayfish P. clarkii. If you get blue, orange or white breeders they are worth more as pets than food, but you can eat them too. Orange P. Clarkii
The wild types breed a lot easier. They can over winter in places that freeze. There are introduced populations in Vermont.
I suggested to the Aquaculture Representative that culture in an Aquaponics situation would relieve at least some of these issues, to which he agreed, but it did not matter since the regulations require anyone who is to possess a certificate for the redclaw to operate a rather large commercial business, no personal or small operations of redclaw are allowed any longer due to the pervious inexperience operators who could not supply the redclaw with their needs in order to become profitable.
I gotta say, stucco, that's just totally wrong on the face of it. I would think that could easily be challenged, as it smacks of "protectionism" toward big business, rather than safety, animal cruelty, or any other such excuse they may use. I suggest that you look up the laws personally at your County Law Library, rather than accepting the interpretation of someone that is bound up in administrative rules. If the administrative rules are not in line with the law, they can be beat! I know this personally, here in Montana!
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I'm thinking of starting up some red claw crays in my basement this winter.. i've got 3 55 gallon tanks that i'll be using on the basement setup, one for fish, and the other 2 for cray's? i'm thinking of getting a couple dozen and hopefully breed over winter, and use an 8' snap set pool for growout in the summer, i read somewhere that a commercial operation was growing out 500 crays in that size, i won't be anywhere near as ambitious as that
it looks like you have yours in tanks, how many do you have in what size tank?
i've read quite a bit, but still have a long way to go before i have any clue to what i'm talking about.. food options look like anything from rabbit pellets to horse feed plus a "sinking pellet" - around 50/50 mix?
i'm starting the indoor stuff this weekend, gotta get my blocks to set up tanks on, another pump.. all the fun stuff..
Use alfalfa pellets, not rabbit pellet. Not only is it cheaper, it has no copper, which rabbit pellets are loaded with. Primary feed is the pellets. Suppliment about 20% with high protein sinking pellets.
Get the walkamins, they grow faster and get bigger. For a breeding colony you can put 1 male and 4 females in a 20 gallon tank with hides for each cray.