Red Claw Crayfish - revival

[Grubster]

I like this topic and will be interested in a small investment for the Mrs soon. Do they eat the same as in New Orleans, break the tail off pull the meat out and eat, and then suck the stuff out of the head. I never did the head part but they think your a sissy if you don't there. Please refrain from making that something it isn't. 

[jonnyscot]

I have signed a new contract for some windfarm projects till 2020. Actually i planned my start with Aquaponics but the day rate and bonusses the customer offered me finally to step over, didn't leave me any choice as to extend my offshore business for another 3 years.
So I'll just have some crays in my pond and see how they developing.
before I have seen this steep demand raising for crayfish but if they are too tricky for Aquaponics, the European Union just did us (outside the EU sure not the european  fishermen) a huge favour again and cut down the quotations in the north sea fisheries to 56% for Cod.
Hence, a cheap fish like Tilapia (evtl. more robust to grow than crayfish) must burst the international market price soon as well.. 
Lets look an see...

Yes,, I seen a survey result online a week ago saying more than 96% of uk fishermen voted for brexit,,, the euro fishermen will be quaking in their boots,, although I fear once again an unfavourable fishery deal as part of the sweetening exit package,,,
I cannot see Tilapia coming close to replacing either cod or haddock, it's completely tasteless in comparison,, one of the few restrictions that I've suffered since leaving uk is my fish diet, from a minimum 5 fish diets a week to probably 1 per fortnight, Thai seafood (or Thai farmed seafood) doesn't even come close.


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[Chao Lao Beach]

A shipment of Red Claw were imported from a farm near Cains to Chanthaburi about 4 years ago as babies to a bunch of crazy Aussies.

[JAFO]

On 10/30/2016 at 4:45 PM, Grubster said:

I like this topic and will be interested in a small investment for the Mrs soon. Do they eat the same as in New Orleans, break the tail off pull the meat out and eat, and then suck the stuff out of the head. I never did the head part but they think your a sissy if you don't there. Please refrain from making that something it isn't. 

 

 ^ Me too . My wife has started a small pond with the crayfish. We started with 50 and lost 8, probably to shock. The others are growing quite well and fast. These are in a very  water feature area with plants and small fish. We have been feeding them fish meat we roll up and freeze. We tried the other foods but its not as effective. This is our first go at this as a hobby, we are going to build a  larger pond and these will be part of the eco system. We will off course eat them as we see fit.

 

I grew up on a river and used to fish for these and they are quite good eating.  

[user343434]

I am now working on the natural lifestock in my pond. I really don't know what my crays have all eaten during their stay but sure is there are some lads inside they love crustaceans. 
I cannot get any cray of 300 in my trap beside lots eels and some snakeheads.

As a German are eels (40 EUR/Kg smoked eel in Germany) in a pond a gift of nature, but in this case for me in LOS just not what I expected and worst I wanted to catch.
This pond needs lots of work to make it suitable for crays. 

Even I would getting rid of the eels and snakeheads the next rainseason will bring them back. 

So we must take another action, and provide more hideouts:

We will try to get new vegetation beside lotus in but first the water needs to be more clear. 
Because of all dirt movement and past rain season the water is complete grey from fine sand.
I cover the slopes with ready to go lawn, then some swim plants on the surface and robust water plants under water.
any other solution how to settle the dust faster?

[pigeonjake]

hi all,

as you know  we are pig farmers,BUT, ive just been and got our first red claws,

we went and got 5 females and 5 males to start the breeding, 20 juveniles about 3 inch long and 50 at 1 inch long just to get us going,

im in the process of converting 3 pig pens into rearing ponds they will be 1,5 mtrs x 3 mtrs and there will be 6 of these,

then in our barn i will be building 16   1mtr x half a mtr small ponds for the females,

its just out of interest really, i know my wife and kids like them so ill give it a go, ill put some pics of the building work up tomorow,

none of that race way malarky for me, the lady i get my crays from just had them in block built ponds same as mine will be 3 blocks high but only 1 block deep and the water is crystal clear just air stone and there not on all the time, she has had them a couple of years now, so thats the way for me, natural water with oxigenating weed in there,

here is what we bought from her, like i say pics of the building work to follow,

 

jake

[user343434]

nice crawlers but I reckon when I start my Aquaponic Farm in around 2020 I'll stand a better chance to grow them (professionally) as feed them to the eels and snakeheads in my pond.

 

[jonnyscot]

Like the welding glove idea there jake,,, hehehe,, these little buggers always seem to be acrobatic, no matter how close I get the fingers in behind the main claws on the body these devils manage to twist back and grab hold of my skin between thumb and forefinger


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[pigeonjake]

5 hours ago, jonnyscot said:

Like the welding glove idea there jake,,, hehehe,, these little buggers always seem to be acrobatic, no matter how close I get the fingers in behind the main claws on the body these devils manage to twist back and grab hold of my skin between thumb and forefinger


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hi jonny,

 

yes thats what i thought never picked one up before, ive always got the odd welding glove about, i bring them for gardening,

i was a welder by trade, now welding inspector, yes i still work in the oil and gas industry off shore and on shore, mainly go to scotland these last few years on BP kinniel.

the more we talk about these buggers the better they sound, my wifes uncle police, he does them, he has joined in with some big company they sell them the babies and buy them back after 50 days, my wife has joined, but we will only be selling them older ones or if we have to many babies they will buy them off us, it sounds good, i will post pics tomorow of our ponds ive been doing, the building supplies shop let us down yesterday saying they could deliver and it came today, this is thailand, thai time,,lol

but ive got 2 ponds with water in them now, ive split a pig pen in 2 making 2 ponds 3x 2 mtrs, 12 inch deep at one end and 9 inch at the other, that was the slope of the pig pen for washing,

ive got another 2 to complete giving us 6 growing ponds, we can have more, and we have room on the place to build more should the need arise, easier then pigs for my wife when im not here so who knows what could happen all ur pig pens could be halfed,

there seems to be a bit of money in it round here,

happy new year to all the farming lads on here and all my other mates

 

jake

[jonnyscot]

Hi jake, all the best to you too, I've been home since August, work is few and far between nowadays on the pipelay, so just looking in now and again on the wife in her little project, we have only 2 big tanks and 2 glass aquariums at the minute, just waiting a few weeks before she digs her first pond, the rest of the land currently has bamboo and galangai so we won't dig any more ponds for a while after this one


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[pigeonjake]

hi jonny,

i too have worked on pipelay barge with PTL, was in brazil with subsea 7 well they was petrology when we first went out there,,lol

ive just put a video on you tube under ron jackson pig farmer about our red claws and what we intend to do,

catch you soon, good luck,

jake

[pigeonjake]

think ill put the pics up first the talk through them,

the first picture is the new ponds im making out of old pig pens, like i said in the other post they are 2x3mtrs 12 inch deep at one end and 9 at the other,

2nd pic is how i split the pen in 2 with a 2 block high wall,

3rd is another view of the finished pond with the air going, we are going to collect 200 inch long babies on the 3rd jan,

4th  is just a view of the old pig shed that in time will be all crayfish ponds, we have plenty of other pig pens,

5th is how we are keeping them at the moment in bowls, the bottom ones have a male and female in them, the middle ones have 5 juveniles in each one, we will pick through them for the biggest and fastest growing for our breeders,

6th is the pump setup for the new ponds,

as you will see from the pics the new ponds and the ones in the bowls have air, but also oxygenating weed, duck weed and the new ones have pat bung try and giving the a natural feel, we even have small fish in there, platies, guppys ect,

 

jake

[ozzydom]

Would be interested in comments re this bulletin from the FOA,

Tanks

Despite the focus of redclaw grow-out being earthen pond systems, there has been regular interest in the use of tank systems. These require only a modest investment in comparison with pond construction, and have therefore attracted great attention. Unfortunately, tank systems are not likely to provide profitable returns. Redclaw obtains the bulk of its food from decaying matter and associated microbes contained in the pond bottom mud. Although manufactured feeds have been developed for redclaw they do not appear to sustain acceptable growth rates in tank systems.

Similarly, juvenile redclaw, which have slightly different feeding habits to the adults, cannot be cultured successfully in tanks because appropriate food cannot be provided. As a result, the juvenile redclaw become cannibalistic, leaving very few survivors.

The level of production likely from redclaw culture in tanks would return considerably less than the operating costs, and certainly far less than the setup costs.

Efforts to develop successful commercial tank systems for the cultivation of freshwater crayfish have a considerable history. Both in Australia and overseas, years of work have been applied to this approach, and yet the only commercially viable operations for redclaw are earthen pond based. There exists no confirmed or documented case of commercial success for crayfish production in a tank system.

[pigeonjake]

i to read all that dom in the report,

like i say the lady who i get mine from does hers in ponds and has been doing for a couple of years, there has been improvments in feed now,

plus with making the pond as natural as possible with weed, pat bung,oxyginating and other weeds you can create decaying matter,

just my thoughts,

my wifes uncle is with a big coop doing them and they do there in small 1.5 x 1 mtr 6 inch high tanks, made from plastic and plastic pipe,

and thats how they are told to do it,

i think with the improvments in feed also the natural way are ponds are they will be fine, i cant remember how old that artical was dom?

[ozzydom]

That report is dated 2012 Jake,

The article gives figures of 394kg of product per 1000metre pond  in a 9 month grow out period as break even point,that is averaging 65 gram per, which gives a stocking rate of 15 per sq met.

It all depends on market price as to the profitability of the venture

I have never seen a price per kg for human consumption in Thailand ,but would imagine about 500 baht per kg as ball park.

At 65 gram ,that is about 15 per kg or about 33 baht a piece.

Getting rid of 15000 perishable crays in one fell swoop may create problems.

That is a far cry from the prices being charged at the moment.

Remember the ostrich fad and the Alpacha,s, everybody was going to make a fortune but once the initial fad market was satisfied they faded into history (in THailand anyway).

 

I have no intention of being a doomsayer ,merely a skeptic ,Nearly fifty years in the fishing industry has taught me to tread carefully,

We have all the infrastructure in place to try a 1 rai pond so we will give it a go.(besides I am very partial to a feed of cray

[farmerjo]

Hi Jake,

I presume all the juveniles you bought are male or are they mixed?

Like yourself and others i would like to get some but think paying pet prices for breeders is over the top for non commercial farming of them.(just a feed every now and then)

If the juveniles were mixed i would be happy to to put them in my ponds feed them  soya beans weekly and forget about them for 12 months.

Can you start off this way.

 

 

[pigeonjake]

hi guys,

the juviniles we bought are mixed,

we are going to pick through them, the ones that are biggest and grown the fastest will be kept for breeders, it will be slow getting all our breeders together but once you have them there life span is long,

ive only just come in been laying some blocks in the barn for the females, wasnt going to do it till next week but i want to show you guys the idea of were the females are going to go, the ponds are .5 x 1 metr they will house 2 females and a male, when the female gets eggs on here she will be put in a basket in one of the rearing ponds till the young come off her, i can put more then one female in the pond, ill take a few pics in a moment of the ponds and the baskets they will go in when they have eggs and young on them,

ive priced feed up round here, up to 1000bht a bag, but you can feed them blah duck feed they on need protean in the 20s, and i suppose you could make your own feed up. 

reading up on them they eat just about anything, my own opinion i think they will be better eating out of the pond like im going to do, not taist of mud,

it will be a learing curve at the start like anything else, but we will get there we always do,,lol

 

right ill go and take some pics, 

[pigeonjake]

right im back,

sorry so many pics but i want you to get the idea of what we are doing,

1st pic female basket closed,

2nd pic female basket open, they are i think 20 bht from plastic shop

3rd female breeding ponds, well they will be,,lol and some more views of them they will hold 2 females and a male,

the pat bung you see has only been in there 2 days and has started standing up and growing, they will eat that too

egg trays for the babies to get under

pipe we cut and stuck together yesterday, kids called them condo,s 

 like i say its going to be a learing curve, but if you dont try you dont get anywhere its not a lot of money to set up,

we was thinking of putting a couple of cooked ones on a small try of rice to sell in wangnamyen a few rich people there, or even open a small eatery just selling them cooked in different ways, but all this will be in the future,

i do know the company that uncle police is in with sell them babies and buys them back after 50 days,! we are going to see them, but i dont want to buy there babies, we will breed our own, or im thinking of having a word with the lady who we buy from and saying look we will take all your babies, she charges 15bht at an inch long, i got her down to 12bht, if i bought all i would want to pay 10 bht,

the company that uncle police is with buys they at 35bht after 50 days,

im still doing figours but it could be a good little earner, we are going to see this company next week, so ill know more and ill take some pics if they let me,

 

jake

 

[pigeonjake]

a couple of pics of the filter i knocked up this morning, i made 2 of them, portable, so we can put them in any pond we want to, they arnt for the bowls that was just to try them they will be mainly for the breeding ponds,

the pumps are 280bht the barrels i had, 50 bht for fittings and hey presto filters,

[Pink7]

This is interesting...anyone been able to make a business from this yet selling it to buying customers?

 

 

Pink

[farmerjo]

Thought i would bump this thread.

Anyone still doing it.

My neighbour  built 3 small concrete holding tanks about 3 months ago but hasn't stocked up yet.

[jonnyscot]

We still have 3 earthen ponds, one stocked, waiting for young to grow a bit before stocking another pond,, these are small ponds around 20 mtr by 9.5mtr,, we’ve around 50 tanks (plastic ) for breeding,,, don’t know if it’s the cold spell but only have about 8 females with eggs


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[user343434]

just to revive the story.

 

there are many sayings that Red Claws will not grow in marketable sizes in tanks.. We breed them in Tanks with a high survival rate and we grow them out. 

BUT the food you can buy is crap for crabs and doesn't work. 

After a longer trial we have found the recipe that makes them growing fast and also the survival rate of the juveniles is immense.

The Food was the problem at all not the earthen ponds.

I only can recommend to put the chef's hat on and try whatever the fridge gives you.. 

Cut down your breakfast.. but as at "Kill Fe**ing Colonel"  The 11 secret herbs and spices.

 

Here comes "Don Fatty" 149 grams and  still growing in a 800ltr fishtank.. to be honest he is around 10 month old.

but we get lots on the BBQ that have 90 - 120 in just 8 month.. 

 That Tank has a diameter of 2 m and the rock is about 45 cm, Don Fatty's sunbath spot when the little hunger appears..

Edited November 28, 2018 by See Will
typo