Hi guys
I am wondering about stocking some crayfish.
I have seven ponds on our land and am trying to manage them for some large bass. I have already stocked blue gill, tilapia (will stock them every spring),fathead minnows early on (they're just about gone now-eaten up by the bass ), golden shiners and obviously the F1 hybrid bass. Several, not all, have channel cats stocked as well. All seven ponds are an acre or less. I realize that the size of the ponds is a limiting factor. I would reason that any addition to the bio-diversity would add an extra mineral or vitamin that might help the bass grow. Plus from what I've read bass just love to eat crayfish.
Two questions:
1)Are there any negatives to stocking crayfish?
2)All the suppliers can only provide crayfish starting in November. This seems a strange time of the year to be stocking a cold blooded creature. Is this a problem?

RoyB,

Love your attitude....can never have enough forage. I'm also always looking for additional natural forage.

Also, I really, really like your set-up...7 ponds of about an acre. You have a great possibility to manage your ponds to minimize conditioning on the LMB. I don't see the size as limiting at all if about 1 acre minimum. You can grow some great bass in those ponds. The F1 is also a great, great choice for ponds. You might want to consider devoting one pond to pure Florida strain ande another to pure northern strain and use them to add genetics to your other ponds. Lots of possibilities with your configuration.

I've never tried crayfish myself. I've been afraid, cautious of introducing a type of crayfish that could be harmful, undesirable...or introducing some virus or whatever with the stocking. Its very easy to destroy something that it takes years to establish.

I also have a "hunch" that stocking them might be akin to adding fathead minnows to an existing pond...a very expensive snack for your bass...but I could be completely wrong.

If you try it, please keep some records or closely observe effects. I'd be very interested in what you find.

p.s. one more thought...fall would be a great time to do it...provide increased forage heading into winter.

Thanks for the response.
I actually have ponds with F1 bass from one fishery and two ponds with F1 from another fishery so there will be some genetic diversity there. I have one pond that stays muddy that I only put blue catfish and forage fish in because the cattle stir it up and there is nothing I can do to stop it.
I kind of think the crayfish might just be an expensive snack as well, but surely the bass won't eat all of them and they will hopefully reproduce so maybe it won't be a one year thing. Only two of the ponds have big bass (3-4 pound range after 3 years)The rest have small bass. Maybe in those ponds they will have time to establish themselves before they get predated too heavily. The Florida only in one pond and Northern only in one pond is an interesting thought. I might be able to pull that off. Two of the ponds will need refurbishing before too long. They are getting silted in.
I do keep good catch and stocking records and will continue to keep them. I'll let you know how it develops.

My dad decided against stocking our new pond with crayfish because he was worried about them weakening the dam with their burrows.

That's a good point. I've heard that one also...don't know if its true or not. Crawdads occur naturally and I have never seen them damage a pond dam, but if stocked in large numbers, it may be a valid concern.

I would have to agree with you, Meadowlark. I doubt that just a few would damage the dam at all. However, if there were lots of them it makes sense that some damage could be sustained. I'm just not sure if it would be enough to cause any concern.

Many ponds have them naturally and I've never heard of any damage to dams caused by them. I'm not thinking about covering the bottom with them. I doubt the bass would let that happen for long. Evidently crayfish are like candy to a bass. You can buy crayfish in 30-40 pound bags and I was thinking one bag per pond.
These ponds are in East Texas and most bodies of water there have some crayfish in them already.
Some of these ponds have thousands of frogs too. I am sure that is an excellent source of food for a bass as well.
Forage, forage, forage!
Experimenting and tinkering is half the fun isn't it?

I have two ponds in east texas and in my 4 years here never seen any crawfish... my soil is very sandy...but my friends land 20 minutes away has diff soil and crawfish holes all over his front yard.... am i just missing them, are they here? sorry ..didn't mean to hijack your thread...im really interested in stocking my ponds with forage for bass, as right now my biggest bass is maybe 2lbs

i do have thousands of frogs! can't step on my front porch without seeing 10 of them!

I don't know. They would be easy to miss. Usually I don't see the crayfish themselves I see the little mud houses they build. I think they build the burrows when the water is receding.
Maybe they don't like sandy soil. So much of East Texas is sandy I would find that surprising.

RoyB, I have abuddy with a 26 acre pond. He has stocked all the finfishes you named for forage AND he adds 1500-2000 pounds of crawfish per year. Many of them get used for snacks, but they also establish residence. He buys his out of Shreveport and gets them every May. These are small to midsize crawfish that can't be sold to the restaurants. He pays anywhere from .50-.75/pound, and he picks them up himself.

I've got sandy soils in places and blackland soil in others. The crayfish definitely prefer the blackland soil. I use one blackland (gumbo) field for hay production and some years the crayfish are so bad you can't hardly even mow the hay.

As related to ponds, the soil used in dam constuction has or at least should have a relatively high clay content in it...that would be preferred crayfish soil also as opposed to the sandy loam and/or what we sometimes call sugarsand soils which never have crayfish.

Thanks fouzman. Thats the kind of input I was looking for.
I am going to try it.

That sounds very logical Meadowlark. If you live in a burrow like they do, it seems like sand walls would be collapsing all the time. A burrow in clay type soil would be more sturdy.

RoyB I was about to comment the other day that if you build the pond they will come.I was thinking that you were in west TX,not east.But I'm sure that in east TX if you build the pond,they will find it.I've never seen a pond in La that didn't have crawfish in it.