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Live food: crayfish?

Started by Guest_gzeiger_* , Mar 13 2009 09:21 PM

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5 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 13 March 2009 - 09:21 PM

I came across a bunch of young crawdads yesterday while I was out collecting feeders for my pickerel, and I thought I'd try feeding them to some of my other fish which seem to have quite a taste for live ghost shrimp. They turned out to be a hit. I think they may be the favorite food ever for the mummichogs, even more popular than bloodworms. Yesterday I was feeding juveniles in the 3/4"-1" range, and it was mostly mummichogs taking them, ripping them apart and eating the pieces, but today I found some even smaller, at 1/4 to 1/2", and my sunfish (E gloriosus) and one shiner started swallowing them whole.

I'm just wondering if I need to be careful not to let them swallow the hard shells. Could that be harmful, or will they be able to digest it?

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#2 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 14 March 2009 - 03:37 PM

I'm just wondering if I need to be careful not to let them swallow the hard shells. Could that be harmful, or will they be able to digest it?

You're just recreating nature... sunfish eat crayfish in the wild... there will not be any problems...

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#3 Guest_bulrush_*

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Posted 07 July 2010 - 12:17 PM

I have a colony of self-cloning marbled crayfish, they are all female. But I don't have any cichlids to eat them so I am constantly overrun with baby crayfish. Get yourself some marbled crayfish and breed them in a 20g, you'll get 30-40 babies about every 30 days from each female.

I feed mine shrimp pellets and sinking algae wafers. And dead fish if the occasion arises.

Edited by bulrush, 07 July 2010 - 12:18 PM.

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#4 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 07 July 2010 - 06:06 PM

I do have some of those, but have not been quite so successful at getting them to reproduce. I would not be encouraging their spread and captive propagation, however. In terms of invasive potential, marbled crayfish are pretty much as bad as it gets.

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#5 Guest_CATfishTONY_*

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Posted 07 July 2010 - 06:46 PM

I came across a bunch of young crawdads yesterday while I was out collecting feeders for my pickerel, and I thought I'd try feeding them to some of my other fish which seem to have quite a taste for live ghost shrimp. They turned out to be a hit. I think they may be the favorite food ever for the mummichogs, even more popular than bloodworms. Yesterday I was feeding juveniles in the 3/4"-1" range, and it was mostly mummichogs taking them, ripping them apart and eating the pieces, but today I found some even smaller, at 1/4 to 1/2", and my sunfish (E gloriosus) and one shiner started swallowing them whole.

I'm just wondering if I need to be careful not to let them swallow the hard shells. Could that be harmful, or will they be able to digest it?

Hi gzeiger,
i do allot of pole and line fishing, stomach content of most predator fish is over 40% crawfish.

Edited by CATfishTONY, 07 July 2010 - 06:51 PM.