Growing crawfish in small pond in Colorado - help!!!

[Redley]

Hello,
I know most of you are here for your amazing ponds that I envy like no other!
I won't be able to complete my dream pond for a few years, I live on a mountain side and have a ton of other projects to get my little cabin more 'liveable'. I live in Golden, Colorado and it gets a good deal of snow in the winter.

My only side project is fantasying about my crawfish pond. I've recently fallen in love with crawfish/crayfish....eating them that is

I would like to purchase some live from Louisiana and set up a small stock pond for them to grow. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this, how to keep the water from freezing in the winter, any advise.

I'm looking to start with my preformed pond 6' long x 4' wide x 2' deep, I understand its not that deep, but has a lot of horizontal space for them. I will bury the pond into the ground. Was thinking I could wrap heat tape around the bottom prior to setting it into the ground to help prevent freezing over winter, has anyone done this? Also setting up a raccoon barrier to prevent those thieves from getting my little friends. I would get a few air stones/air pumps to provide aeration, maybe even a small fountain in the summer time. Planning to provide many rocks and pvc tubes for them to protect themselves, keep comfy, perhaps find a little love and make babies. Will have freshwater plants for them to dine on and provide supplemental feedings too.

I could always set up my 100 gallon stock tank in the garage...but that doesn't sound as fun.

Thoughts/comments/advise greatly appreciated.

 

[rodsboys]

You will likely need lots of rocks for them to hide under and claim as their own territory. Would make it a pain to harvest though. You should look into a northern species too as they may be more winter hardy.

 

[Redley]

Already have a ton of rocks to put in for territory space. Plan to actually 'trap' them in my crawfish trap in time for harvest so should be easy on the harvest. Wondering if anyone has done this and if it is feasible

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome from Louisiana! But not a crawfish-eater....

Have you done any research on raising crawfish? Maybe, like rodsboys, suggested -- look into a more winter hardy variety.

 

[Big Lou]

Goggle raising crawfish. Volumns of information available. If your intent is to raise enough to eat then you should focus on crawfish farming. Please keep us informed and welcome to GPF.

 

[Nepen]

I have 2 crawfish in my fish tank. I can tell you that they EAT ALL of my plants.. I think I spent $300 in plants these past several months and they ate it all.....

They also like worms and any type of protein.

Mine is a electric blue crayfish.

I know that they are territorial and if the male is not in the form that can reproduce, it can kill the female. They REALLY need a lot of space because when they molt, they are very vulnerable to be eaten. The first time I bought them I had 4, then 3 got eaten by the biggest one. They are in 55 gallon tank with lots of hiding room, but still they got eaten.

You will also need to add Iodine. This will help them molt. Put in HALF the amount recommended for salt water tank.

Now I have just 2. A male and a female. They have not done the deed probably because the female is a bit young. But I'm just happy with just 2. I dont think the baby will survive being eaten by their parents anyway.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I would think that Colorado would be less than an ideal climate for raising Crawfish.

 

[pecan]

I would think that Colorado would be less than an ideal climate for raising Crawfish.

You'ed be surprised. Redley, I live in Salt Lake Valley Utah and have property in southern Utah on the Utah Nevada border.

Our property sits at 7000 feet above sea level in some mountains made up of Pinion Pine and Juniper forest. It is the the most north eastern portion of the Majave desert. Very little rain fall each year but a lot of snow. Temps getting into the negative 20's in the winter and near 100 in the summer.

There is a ghost town (old silver mine) up the road from our property and just up from that a small pond the mining town used for water storage.

One spring when the water was high, about 4' we took some floaties up there and floated around in the pond. My sister and I had crawdads nibbling on our toes!!!! They were everywhere!

The pond pretty much dried up to just mud by late summer and the crawdads burrowed into the mud until the pond filled again with water.

I guess I am saying they can and do live in high elevation mountain ponds naturally. But I would think you would want a mud bottom, possibly dig it 4' deep, use a liner then fill it with about 12" of mud.

This is a pictures of the little crawdad pond taken Easter 2012.

 

[michey1st]

Look at that blue water!!!! Gorgeous!!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Redley -- I'm in Longmont, so I know your weather. A couple things right off... First, you're right, a 2' deep pond is not deep enough. Heat tape will crack over the years requiring a complete tear-down of your pond for repairs, and the focused heat will likely degrade your pond liner causing it to fail in time. I would not suggest you go with this method because it will cause problems, and it really sucks to tear everything apart for a rebuild.

As mentioned above, you would be much better getting a Northern variety of cold-hardy crayfish. You know they grow locally around here and you can find them in most ponds and rivers, right? Find some of those guys and let them breed so you have something that will survive and grow well in our climate. And yes, they're edible, and tasty!

Your best bet is to freely dig a pond to a *minimum* of 3-4 feet deep, in the shape that your property allows, then put down a regular pond liner. The rubber is thick enough that the crayfish can't hurt it, and the stuff is fairly cheap as a one-time expense. You want the depth so you can get to the ground that doesn't freeze, which will prevent your pond from freezing through to the bottom. I can tell you from experience that an 18" deep pond buried about 6" in the ground will still freeze all the way through. My first pond was one of those pre-fab liners, and it was a constant battle to prevent freezing. If the power to the heaters had ever gone out for more than a few hours the whole thing would have froze up.

My secret to making sure my pond stays fairly fluid all Winter is to never shut off the pumps. Because of our altitude, the sun thaws things out quick in between storms, so as long as your pipes are protected from freezing keep your pumps going and circulating the upper surface of the water. The sudden freezes in late December, and most of February, will be the worst times for freezing and you may need to add heaters during those times. If the surface of your water is moving from the pumps, it really prohibits the ability of the pond to freeze over. Air pumps would be another option for this. Keep in mind though that allowing the pond to partially freeze over is a good thing -- a thin ice cap will trap the heat in the water and raise your temperatures (I've measure the water under an ice cap as high as 40 degrees).

What else? Filtration? 55-gal plastic barrels are available everywhere around here. They're about $20 for a food-grade barrel. If you partially bury them, it will also help with heat retention, and you can get heaters that clamp inside the barrel. Crayfish are pretty dirty, so plan your filter location somewhere that the drain can run off to a useful location, like into a garden, and you'll have free fertilizer. If you pile large river rocks around the edge of your pond, irises will grow really well bare-root into the rocks, and the crayfish will love nibbling on the roots. The irises also provide their own filtration to the water. Try to keep the bulb no more than 6" below the surface of the water, although 3" is better. They will grow deeper by themselves, but they need to be a bit shallow to get started.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mmathis]

Thanks for the post, @Shdwdrgn! Very informative!

 

[Big Lou]

Great post!