breeding shrimps & crawfish

[hkconc]

Anyone had much luck in breeding shrimps & crawfish.
Each time I get a bucket load, they only last a week or two. I am setting up a few plastic tubs with a areator to keep the water flowing.

[Gordie]

I have kept shrimp alive for near to a month, they are usually used up by then, but there are a few things you MUST do. Areator 24/7

Never freshen up the water with town or tank water as the p/h levels are way out and you will kill them real quickly.

It MUST be creek water. I remove and replace one third or more of the water around every 3-4 days. I use a piece of poly pipe and siphon the water out into a bucket.

Also I feed mine. Goldfish food (granuals), it is around the size of sand.

Another way to kill them is to leave a surplus of food on the bottom of the tank.

So what I do is feed them a sprinkle of food when I am about to change the water.

You will see them eating and when they have had enough they leave the rest.
This is when I change the water, siphon out the surplus granuals plus their droppings, add new water and they are right for a while.

I dont put lobies in with the shrimp as they like to crush them as they swim past.

I do throw in pieces of shade cloth, poly pipe and whatever they can hide in as they seem to be happy in this situation.

I use an areator to transport them to the fishing grounds but once there I just freshen the water every half hour.

One more thing, I found that they can jump out of my fish tank so a piece of mesh over the top is important.

If I have missed something then just ask. Good luck.

Regards Gordon

[Barraboy7]

Hi HC
I dont know of anyone breeding them (crayfish) in containers, sometimes you get females with eggs but they dont hatch to my knowledge without the natural mud and ater environment. My brother and myself and old Dad out at Chinchilla has been keeping crayfish for years, (not shrimps) and they last more than long enough for him to use them, sometimes up to 6 months.
He keeps them just in big plastc tubs in his shed with only 2 -3 inches of water in them. I asked him what he feeds them, He said "why feed them they only GROW!" LOL...he wants them the size they are for his bait! I never knew him keeping shrimps.
His guide lines are
- Dont overstock
- Dont feed them! He swears by the fact that they will process water etc thru their system and they produce the water they can survive in.
- If you do feed them, as mentioned above its much easier to contaminate the water and kill them, so you must be more careful. He has fed them in the past with little cat biscuits, slices of carrot etc.
They also eat some of the slime buildup on the sides of the tub and tells me they still grow slowly with him never feeding them.
- Bring some of their own water (where they are from) to start off with, and top up as needed with that as well, although he regularly tops up with tank water just a bit.
- Easier to keep in winter as the waters cooler amd maintains oxygen better, hot weather you need to find ways to keep water cool, as warm water will wipe them out fast.
My brother used to use an aerator but my Dad never has. Hes 75 and a wise old fisherman.
He also freezes crayfish for use in winter if they are hard to get then. Key with that is you must freeze them IN WATER. If you dont they will dry out and stink like crazy and be useless, but thawed from water they are as fresh as!
Hope that helps in your journey
Barraboy7

[disorderly]

As stated above the crayfish are pretty easy to keep.
My old man keeps them in an old plastic stock trough(keep this in a sheltered spot away from the sun and birds.)
He feeds them lettuce leaves...not too much ..just when they are gone he adds a couple more..
Quite amazingly where he lives it gets down to minus 5 or 6 degrees and the water will actually freeze on top but the crayfish will still survive...they are tough buggers...but their enemy is contaminated or overheated water...keep a close eye on this..
Dont know about shrimps as they are very easy to catch as needed.

Scott

[Stimpy46]

All the above posts are right on the money. My grandparents run bait business and stock shrimp & yabbies. I've even kept them as bait myself. I kept mine in a 5ft fish tank set up. I had the heater in the tank set on 23 degrees and a good flow from the filter, double aerators.... the works. It was originally my tropical fish tank. But this worked, the yabbies & shrimp breed well. As for food I used 2 things, trpoical fish food flakes as they contain more nutients & aquatic plants. You can get these from pet shops or from where you were getting your shrimps.
Always change your water every 3 weeks and if you have to use town water add a tap water softener and do a PH test and make sure that the PH is around 7 (which is neutral). That's how I did it. My grandfather was much simpler. He kept his in old bath tubs with about 15cm of water and an aerator. He had bricks and pipes for them to hide and aquatic plants as food. They bred as well.

Happy fishing

Brad

[tunaticer]

Using an underground filter does remove lots of the toxins the shrimp excrete into the sand or gravel in your tank. The higher the water flow rate through the underground filter the better. My old tank sucked 200 gallons per hour through the under ground filter and kept the water fresh. I did have shrimps in there for about 4 weeks at one stage while collecting for a big trip away. Losses I think were more from shrimp damage than anything else and you need to keep removing any dead as soon as possible. I fed them with peeled carrots hung into the tank on line.

Jack.

[oldboot]

There was a segment on gradening australia a little while ago about a bloke who was doing "aquaponics"

he was growing vegies and stuff in gravel and using that gravel to filter the water from tamks he was growing fish and redclaw in.
he was growing redclaw, barra and something else.

looked very interesting to me.

it occurs to me there would be several important factors

PH
temprature
aeration
as mentioned

disposal of excess nitrogen....is critical.... especialy if you are going to feed.
( hence the plants and gravel beads in aquaponics)

if you wanted them to breed or to keep them for extended preiods I would expect you would have to provide some sort of simulated habitat.

I'm suree there would be some information on farming redclaw somewhere.

cheers

[hkconc]

thank guys
I can get as many as I like ,from a dam I built at leyburn, but its a 30 minute drive from where I live. its a good gravelly botton dam, easy to scoop.
I put about 200 in a wheelbarrow a few weeks back, with some bird wire rolled up , They were happy as a pig in shit, but I forgot to cover them up. Ended up all over the yard.
I have seen a few setups of them in fish tanks with areators.
I am setting up a few plastic tubs fromm silly sollies, over flowin into each other.
I might try the shrimps set up first thou.