Aquacultural Engineering 1 (1982) 311-317

POND CULTURING OF CRAWFISH IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

T. B. LAWSON and F. W. WHEATON

Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Maryland, CollegePark, Maryland 20742, USA

ABSTRACT Due to a s&nificant increase in the farming o f crawfish by pond culture methods in the southern United States this paper briefly summarises the current practice being developed there. Crawfish are cultured in shallow, open ponds surrounded on all sides by levees. The water depth seldom exceeds 45-61 cm. Area may vary, but the most popular s&es range from 2 to 16 ha. A rotation scheme involving rice and crawfish is generally practised, with rk'e serving as food for the crawfish. Good management technklues are required for maximum crawfish production. One essential element is circulation o f water through the ponds to keep dissolved oxygen concentrations above 5 mg litre -1. With good quality water and proper management a harvest o f up to 2200 kg ha-lyr-a may be realised.

INTRODUCTION Crawfish are freshwater crustaceans found naturally in all continents o f the world, except Africa. There are more than 300 species in existence with over 100 known to occur in the United States (Avault et al., 1972) and 29 species are found in Louisiana State. Crawfish are known throughout the southern United States by several other names: crayfish, crawdads, mud-bugs and spiny lobsters. They vary greatly in size and habitat. The smaller species may reach only 2.5 cm in length while the larger crawfish m a y grow to over 25 cm. They are found in most low-lying, wet areas, whether it be a swamp, small stream or a roadside ditch. Most crawfish burrow in the mud, but some may choose to spend their entire lives above ground. 311 Aquacultural Engineering 0144-8609/82/0001-0311/$02.75 Applied Science Publishers Ltd, England, 1982 Printed in Great Britain

312

T.B, LAWSON, F.W, WHEATON

There are currently over 20 400 metric tons of crawfish being produced annually in the United States (Huner and Barr, 1980). By far the largest share is produced in Louisiana where over 24 000 ha of ponds are currently in production with an annual cash value of $51 million (Cook, 1981). Over 453 metric tons of crawfish are beng produced annually on the West Coast in California and Oregon, while 23 metric tons are produced in the Great Lakes region (Hurter and Barr, 1980). In the past most Louisiana crawfish were caught in the wild within the vast Atchafalaya River Basin. However, due to unusually low rainfall conditions in the past two years, the wild crop has been reduced drastically, leaving mostly pondcultured crawfish. As a result, prices have soared and crawfish production in ponds has increased dramatically in neighbouring Texas and Mississippi, where premium prices are paid for the cleaner and better tasting crawfish produced in ponds. Over 800 ha of crawfish ponds are currently 'planted' in southeast Texas, and Mississippi is now entering the market with over 650 ha of ponds being planned for production by early 1982 (Rutz, 1981). The farmers have little trouble marketing their crawfish, most being sold retail at roadside stands, from the back of pickup trucks, or even over the counter in fish markets. The cooperative developed in Mississippi, buying crawfish from farmers and re-selling to the consumer, is handling 450 kg of crawfish each day during the growing season (Rutz, 1981). On an annual basis the average crawfish farmer can expect to produce 560-1100 kg ha -~. The well-managed crawfish farm should be capable of producing up to 2200 kg ha-1. At a season-opening price of $0.68 kg-1 in southeast Texas during the spring of 1982, one can imagine that crawfish farming can be quite profitable. The crawfish 'catch' is predominantly composed of two species. The red swamp crawfish Procambarus clarkii makes up about 70%, while the white river crawfish Procambarus acutus, the remainder. The red swamp crawfish is native to the southern United States and the Mississippi Valley, but has been introduced into California, Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland as well as Central America, Africa, Hawaii and Japan (Huner and Barr, 1980). It has also been introduced into Europe and Scandinavian countries where the natural crawfish populations were wiped out by the 'crayfish plague fungus' a decade ago.

DEVELOPMENT

OFPOND

MANAGEMENT

Site and water source

Crawfish are cultured in shallow, open ponds and the popular method of culture is to rotate the crawfish with rice, which provides food for them. The management practice described by Huner and Barr (1980), developed from earlier procedures set out by LaCaze (1970) and Hill and Cancienne (1972), is similar for most of the southern United States. In most cases the land selected for crawfish is

P O N D C U L T U R I N G O F C R A W F I S H IN T H E S O U T H E R N U N I T E D S T A T E S

313

flat, low-lying, marginal land which has little value for any other purpose. It has to be located near a source of good quality surface or well water, as this will dictate the size of the crawfish farm. The area where ponds are to be located should be cleared of trees, stumps, outcroppings, etc., as far as possible. Wooded ponds are used frequently in Louisiana, but production in these ponds is generally much lower, and the crawfish are more difficult to harvest. In addition, the high organic loading in these ponds often results in more rapid oxygen depletion. Soils also play an important role at the site since a high enough clay content is necessary to keep the water in the ponds. Lime too must often be incorporated into the soils. Enough lime must be added to bring the soil pH up to about 6-7-7-0 (Avault et al., 1972) and once the ponds are flooded this amount of lime is enough to maintain the hardness of the water above 100 mg litre -1, since below 50 mg litre -1 crawfish shells will become soft, and production falls dramatically. If surface water is used, run-off from nearby land may be a problem. Water heavily laden with insecticides should not be used anyway since crawfish are particularly sensitive. Herbicides and pesticides are less toxic but may also be lethal. The toxicity o f certain pesticides are discussed in Huner and Barr (1980). Another problem with surface water is that unwanted fish can enter the ponds. The water should be filtered to remove eggs, larvae and small fish, since rogue fish can consume numerous young crawfish. The problem with well water is that it will be low or completely devoid of oxygen; however, it does offer the big advantage, in that it is free of pesticides and unwanted fish. In both cases it is normal to aerate before the water enters the pond.
Pond construction With the site cleared, the area must be levelled and levees constructed. The soil used to construct the levees is 'borrowed' from within the impounded area. The size o f the individual ponds is dependent upon management capabilities, costs, land available and various other factors. In Louisiana and Texas the pond areas vary from 2 t o 16ha. Although crawfish ponds are normally built to a depth of 30-60 cm, deeper ponds may be required in areas which have a hotter summer than the southern United States. The ponds are enclosed on all sides by levees, the crowns of which should be at least 30 cm above the water level when the pond is full. Levees should be wide enough on at least two sides of the pond to permit vehicular access to the ponds. This generally requires a levee crown width of 3-3-7 m. The remaining levees should have a crown width of at least 1-2-1.5 m so that crawfish will not burrow completely through the levee and cause leakage. The side slopes should be 3:1 on the inside and 2:1 on the outside, depending upon soil characteristics. Water flow through the ponds is directed such that 'dead' areas are avoided. This can be accomplished with the use of diversion levees within the pond, as shown in Fig. 1.

314
WATER ENTERS AND AERATES HERE
L ~lz " / / / / f /

T. B. L A W S O N , F. W. W H E A T O N

OUTER

LEVEES

WATER

CIRCULATION

ROUTE

J DIVERSION
LEVEES POND CONTAINING RICE CRAWFISH

I I

)
----"x

AND

OUTLET

Fig. 1. Crawfish pond with inner diversion levees to aid water circulation.

The diversion levees do not need to be as wide and high as the main walls, but should be of sufficient height so that the crown always remains at least a few centimetres above the water surface. By use o f these diversions the pond essentially functions as a raceway, and all of the water may be flushed from the pond. Spacing of the diversion levees depends upon the size o f the pond and is more or less a matter o f judgement since research on this aspect is limited. If improvement in oxygen content is to be achieved by recirculation, this operation, when put into practice, will increase the flowrate through the pond. Unfortunately, on large ponds this still will not overcome the problem o f low oxygen values at the outlet. For this reason it is recommended that total individual pond size be kept to a maximum o f 16-20 ha. Any pond construction must be completed so that it can be flooded by the end o f March so that it can be stocked for that season.

P O N D C U L T U R I N G O F C R A W F I S H IN T H E S O U T H E R N U N I T E D S T A T E S

315

Pond cycle
With newly prepared ponds it is normal to stock with 'brooders' at the rate of about 56 kg ha -a, 50% being female, in March/April. If native crawfish are already present, the amount stocked may be reduced by half, and once stocked, the pond need never be stocked again unless some event should occur to wipe out the entire crop. Drainage of the ponds should commence toward the end of May so that the ponds are drained over a two-week period. It is suggested that this rate should lower the water level by about 7.5 cm per 48 h. The ponds should be completely drained by mid-June. By slowly draining the ponds in this manner the crawfish are forced to burrow deep into the soil in the pond bottom where they mate and raise their young. During the next 30-day period the dry pond bottoms are cultivated, fertilised and limed (if necessary) so that the rice may be planted by mid-July. Various varieties of rice have been tried, and it would appear that some varieties provide greater crawfish production than others. In Texas, two rice varieties, gaining in popularity, are La Belle and Melrose (Davis and Kachtik, 198 l a). Cultivating the first few centimetres of the soil surface will not disturb the crawfish since, by this time, they have burrowed deep into the soil. Research has shown that crawfish can burrow down 61-101 cm (Avault et al., 1972). In early to mid-September, by siphoning water out of the burrows, it can be determined if they contain young crawfish, and when they are found in the majority of the burrows the ponds are flooded. They are usually flooded rapidly to take advantage of the warm weather in the South. However, since the weather is still quite warm through September, flooding may be delayed for two weeks. However, it should be completed by the first week in October or the young crawfish will begin dying in the burrows. At this stage low oxygen conditions can occur in the ponds with the weather still warm, so the water may have to be circulated and aerated. It is possible to begin harvesting the first November after stocking the ponds. The catch at this time will be modest and will consist of the adults stocked in the spring, the 'wild' adults present when the ponds were constructed and the first year young which have reached harvestable size. Harvesting continues through till early June of the following year at which time the ponds are drained. Throughout the spring the catch increases as the young crawfish reach harvestable size. Harvesting could continue through the summer, but at this time the shells become very hard and the meat tough.

Harvesting
Crawfish are harvested by trapping. Some traps are made of galvanised chicken wire, while others are made of plastic. The most popular trap is conical-shaped made from 1-9 cm mesh chicken wire coated with plastic (Fig. 2). The traps are weighted at the bottom to prevent tipping over, have a bait in the centre and usually have three or four funnel-shaped entrances where, theoretically, the crawfish enter but are unable to leave. The 1.9 cm mesh size commonly used to construct the traps allows capture of crawfish greater than 7.6 cm in length (considered the minimum marketable size).

316

T. B. LAWSON, F. W. WHEATON

~10m

..
I

~ ~

30-60cm

Fig. 2.

Method of trapping crawfish. T, trap; WS, water surface; BW, bait well; EF, entrance funnels.

The number of traps used per ha varies, but it is usually between 25 and 40. The traps are baited with pieces of fish and 'run' once or twice each day. Harvesting using traps has been the subject of considerable research over the years, since, due to the labour-intensive nature of this phase of the operation, it can often exceed 50% of the gross income. The old method of harvesting involved a man walking through the pond pulling a wash tub behind him. He would dump the crawfish into the tub and re-bait the trap. This method is by far the slowest and least productive. A more sophisticated method of harvesting uses a motorised boat and a two-man boat crew; one man empties the traps and the other man baits and sets the traps back into the pond. With experienced operators, between 200 and 400 traps can be harvested per hour. A third harvesting method involves the use of a crawfish 'mud buggy'. This fourwheel drive motorised vehicle requires only one operator. Harvest rate drops to 200 traps per hour, but a big advantage, besides cutting labour costs in half, is that the mud buggy can cross levees, where a boat must be hoisted up and carried across the levees. Many other labour saving harvesting techniques have been tested but not yet adopted by the industry. Currently, an automated harvesting system is being researched at Louisiana State University (Cook, 1981).

Water quality parameters (Davis and Kachtik, 1981 b)

Like any other cultured aquatic animal crawfish require an ample supply of good quality water, and high production rates can only be achieved if a sufficient oxygen concentration can be maintained. Ideally, crawfish will fare better if the oxygen concentration can be kept at 5 mg litre -a and above, but they will do quite well at concentrations as low as 2-3 mg litre -a. Immature crawfish, less than 5 cm in length, require at least 1.5 mg litre -1 to survive and 3 mg litre -1 or higher to grow rapidly. During the warmer months when pond vegetation is decaying and organic matter builds up, oxygen concentration in the pond can drop quite rapidly. Since the shallow pond depth limits the effectiveness of conventional mechanical aerators, gravity aera-

POND CULTURING OF CRAWFISH IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

3 17

tion followed by circulation through the ponds is the most common aeration technique currently employed in the industry. The optimum pH for crawfish is 7.0, with the recommendation that the pond water be kept between 6.7 and 7-5. Growth rates are noticeably affected when the pH drifts outside these limits. In laboratory experiments crawfish have survived 20]/00 salinity as sodium chloride. No field experiments have resulted in crawfish surviving in greater than 12%o. A salinity of 80/00 is generally recommended as the upper limit for crawfish production. Finally, water temperatures of 32C or higher are lethal to crawfish if the temperature is allowed to remain at this level for 4 h or more. The most rapid growth occurs between 21C and 23C, and feeding ceases at 13C or below.

REFERENCES Avault, J. W., de la Bretonne, L. & Jaspers, E. J. (1972). Culture of crawfish: Louisiana's crustacean king. The American Fish Farmer, 1 (10), 8-14, 27. Cook, K. (1981). Louisiana researchers analyse crawfish trapping methods in cost-cutting study. Aquaculture Magazine, 8 (1), 10-12. Davis, J. T. & Kachtik, D. (Eds) (1981a). Texas Agricultural Extension Service, Southeast Texas Crawfish Newsletter, No. 7, Texas A & M University. Davis, J. T. & Kachtik, D. (Eds) (1981b). Texas Agricultural Extension Service, Southeast Texas Crawfish Newsletter, No. 8, Texas A & M University. Gooch, D. (1980). Crawfish farming in Louisiana. Proceedings of the First National Crawfish Culture Workshop, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Hill, L. & Cancienne, E. A. (1972). Grow crawfish in rice fields. Co-operative Extension Service Pubhcation No. 1346, Louisiana State University. Huner, J. V. & Barr, J. E. (1980). Red swamp crawfish: biology and exploitation. Sea Grant Publication No. LSU-T-80-001, Louisiana State University. LaCaze, C. (1970). Crawfish farming. Fisheries Bulletin No. 7, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, Baton Rouge. Rutz, G. (1981). Mississippicrawfish industry growing. Aquaculture Magazine, 7 (6), 13-14.