Jump to content


Help cannibalization problems


  • Please log in to reply
8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_mikada_*

Guest_mikada_*
  • Guests

Posted 07 April 2010 - 09:23 PM

I'm having terrible problems, I just culled out all of my males. A bunch of them took me half a day to sex them. I left 1 male per 10 females. They are screwing themselves to death. But then when the female molts they kill her, whats happening, I'm feeding them till they will eat no more. I'm trying to breed the females but why do they keep molting after sex. I've never had this problem before. Most of these are Louisana crayfish and Kentucky crayfish. Any thoughts anybody? I'm keeping the females in the original tank and moving the males, I have them marked with a marker now so I can dip them out easier.

I got about 3 pounds of males or better for a boil or to give away for shipping.

Mike

#2 Guest_UncleWillie_*

Guest_UncleWillie_*
  • Guests

Posted 07 April 2010 - 11:05 PM

While 'Louisiana' and 'Kentucky' crayfish doesn't help with species, your problem isn't with the type of crayfish you have. I think you have too many crays in one confined area. Here are some issues:

You are feeding large amounts to keep them from starving and want to eat each other - Well, that isn't necessarily a good thing. The more you feed, the more they grow, the more they molt. The more they molt, the more vulnerable they are to the surrounding crayfish.

Typically (in my experience) I have better outcomes with a male and female pair. This would require several, smaller setups. You would keep a female to herself in, say, a 10 gallon tank. You would introduce a male, let them breed, then remove the male. The female will have and entire tank to herself to raise her eggs and larvae. Once young are released from mother's care, the female can be removed so that the only killing you have to worry about is siblicide. This way, the young have there own tank to grow up in as well. You can start the process all over again.

I honestly believe you may get better yield if you had several pairs of crayfish in several small setups rather just giant tubs stuffed with craysfish.

#3 Guest_mikada_*

Guest_mikada_*
  • Guests

Posted 07 April 2010 - 11:43 PM

That sounds good for a smaller operation, I'm not a big operation but I have 8 to 10 foot bottom tanks (8) with about a foot of water. My sort tanks are 20 gallons with a foot deep water thats about 2 feet by 4 feet(6). Each of them hold 10 to 20 females with a maximum of 4 males. When I had 2 or 3 crays I didnt have this problem. Now I am dealing with a tad more. This week I'm getting 20 pounds of Clarkii's next week I am getting the austrailian red claws, I don't want to loose any of them. I am sort of a big, little operator at this point until I start with ponds. Then it's the next step.

Mike

#4 Guest_centrarchid_*

Guest_centrarchid_*
  • Guests

Posted 08 April 2010 - 06:48 AM

Mikada,

Since you likely have red swamp or white crayfish already, their biology will have to be considered. Normally, after mating with one to several males, a female will isolate herself in a burrow to lay eggs. I do not think your species is like some Orconectes and some Cambarus where a male may be around to make certain he is the last one to mate with her. If conditions are registered by the female as being too crowded, then she may be inclined to invest growth instead of reproduction, even though she has just mated.

Also do some math. How much area / square yards (meters) do you have in your production / growout tanks? Then determine from literature how many crayfish (red swamp or white river) you can typically have at harvest. I am pretty sure it willl be less than 10 animals. Multiply your area by number of animals per unit area and you should have the number crayfish you can produce in total. An average female is going to give about 400 young, a good one might give you 700 and dud could be approaching 0. Calculate how many average females will give what you want. I bet just a couple females will do the trick for your facility. That may mean you can invest more space in a couple prize breeder females, something like you did before.

Jim

#5 Guest_jase_*

Guest_jase_*
  • Guests

Posted 08 April 2010 - 09:58 AM

That sounds good for a smaller operation, I'm not a big operation but I have 8 to 10 foot bottom tanks (8) with about a foot of water. My sort tanks are 20 gallons with a foot deep water thats about 2 feet by 4 feet(6). Each of them hold 10 to 20 females with a maximum of 4 males. When I had 2 or 3 crays I didnt have this problem. Now I am dealing with a tad more. This week I'm getting 20 pounds of Clarkii's next week I am getting the austrailian red claws, I don't want to loose any of them. I am sort of a big, little operator at this point until I start with ponds. Then it's the next step.

As I'm sure you've probably figured out, aquaculture on any scale larger than a few fish in a tank isn't really a specialty of this forum -- and certainly not aquaculture of crayfish or other invertebrates. I would have to imagine that commercial methods for raising crayfish are pretty well documented in books or elsewhere on the web. I think people on this forum are happy to help as they can, but this really isn't an area of expertise for many (if any) people on here. Sounds like you have enough invested financially that you need to get some good information quick.

This forum looks like it may be more hobbyists than people trying to raise crayfish on any commercial scale, but may be a good start: http://www.crayfishm...crayfish_forum/

#6 Guest_centrarchid_*

Guest_centrarchid_*
  • Guests

Posted 08 April 2010 - 12:37 PM

As I'm sure you've probably figured out, aquaculture on any scale larger than a few fish in a tank isn't really a specialty of this forum -- and certainly not aquaculture of crayfish or other invertebrates. I would have to imagine that commercial methods for raising crayfish are pretty well documented in books or elsewhere on the web. I think people on this forum are happy to help as they can, but this really isn't an area of expertise for many (if any) people on here. Sounds like you have enough invested financially that you need to get some good information quick.

This forum looks like it may be more hobbyists than people trying to raise crayfish on any commercial scale, but may be a good start: http://www.crayfishm...crayfish_forum/


Jase,

Do not speak for me.

Jim

#7 Guest_jase_*

Guest_jase_*
  • Guests

Posted 08 April 2010 - 02:44 PM

Jase, Do not speak for me.
Jim

Sorry if either you or Mike took any offense to my post -- that certainly wasn't my intention at all. My choice of phrasing was probably poor. I didn't mean to imply that there aren't any individuals on this forum who have the interest and qualifications to answer his specific questions about crayfish (you clearly do). I also certainly didn't mean to discredit the value of responses he's already gotten. It is pretty safe to say, however, that this isn't exactly a hangout of large numbers of commercial crayfish farmers.

Based on this and Mike's other posts, it sounds like he's ramping up very quickly from keeping a few crayfish as a hobby to making a go of farming them commercially. As someone who's done the same (with compost worms), I know that it can be a pretty expensive learning curve if you rely too much on trial-and-error. In my case it resulted in 40lbs of worms mostly dead or escaped, to the tune of about $800. I'd simply recommend that Mike do as much digging as he can to learn whatever tried-and-proven methods already exist in the industry.

Again, my apologies for any offense caused.

#8 Guest_mikada_*

Guest_mikada_*
  • Guests

Posted 08 April 2010 - 04:52 PM

Jase,

I checked out the other website, its pretty cool but I still like it here. I've made a few friends here and I really haven't sold a crayfish commercially. I've let some other breeders like here have some of my stock. I'm not saying I won't go commercial because thats in the plans. Like I said I am a Big little operator or hobbist. I have a lot to learn, I did go register at the extenion office as a crayfish farmer but in this state if you try to raise crayfish you had better be safe than sorry and register. We use to have no regulations a few years ago and then one day poof we had tons of regulations on crayfish. Someone from here helped me find about it. This is just a great website. Thanks for the help I am still learning and I have a lot to learn still.

Oh I've built this cool little box for shipping crayfish thats spill proof and has plenty of air holes. I've had up to 5 crays last 4 days without dying in it or killing one another, then I took them out of it. If anybody is interested I'll post plans of it. It beats mailing a gallon of water at over night rates.

Thanks,

Mike

#9 Guest_Newt_*

Guest_Newt_*
  • Guests

Posted 08 April 2010 - 06:50 PM

I'd like to see those plans!




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users