Preliminary Stocking Study of Juvenile White River Crawfish and Red Swamp Crawfish in Brackish-Water Ponds

Abstract

Abstract A study was initiated on rearing juvenile white river crawfish (Procambarus acutus) and red swamp crawfish (P. clarkii) to marketable size in brackish-water, nonvegetated ponds at Louisiana's Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. Three 0.1-hectare earthen ponds were stocked at a rate of 11.0 juveniles/m2 with a ratio of 5.9:1 for white river and red swamp crawfishes, respectively. The ponds were filled and maintained with filtered brackish water with salinities ranging from 0.8 to 1.5‰. A 25%-protein pelleted ration was administered on weekdays and adjusted at 3-week sampling intervals. After 129 d, all ponds were seined and drained to determine production. The combined production of white river and red swamp crawfishes averaged 290.3 kg/hectare. A low average survival rate (18%) for white river crawfish and possible recruitment of red swamp crawfish influenced feed conversion (amount fed!weight gain) which averaged 5.4. At harvest, production and average weight of white river crawfish was about twice tha...