#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  Freshwater Lobster Bbq farm...

## Nawty

Here be my breeding stock...slowly dying but.

i want to grow these things and have enough of the big suckers to bbq a couple of times a week.

But they keep dropping off the merry go round....wish i was better at this stuff...or could concentrate for longer periods and feed them proper..



Anybody have any experience with them...??

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## Fondles

Freshwater Lobster, I never knew such a creature existed.

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## aging one

I dont think its a lobster. I found them in a stream on samui 25 years ago. no meat is a big problem to get around.

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## mobs00

Nawty, one of the reasons that crustaceans can be farmed here is because the water is pumped full of anti-biotics and chemicals to stop algae and fungal growth.

If you were after a more organic way of doing things, as in without additives to the water, I think it may be difficult.


One of the best ways to do it without the chemicals would be to set them up in moving water like the stream you got out back.

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## Orroz

Isn't that crayfish?

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## Happyman

In Taiwan they had fishing parks with different ponds for Bass, Trout, Prawns and freshwater Lobsters.

Catch 'em on a rod,line , hook and a bit of liver !!

Biggest were about 1.5 kilo ! 
 tasted good !

PS They had claws so they were not crayfish !

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## Scandinavian

^Crayfish have claws too...

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## blackgang

I have never seen them farmed, at home we catch them in larger streams with clean flowing water and a sand and gravel bottom during summer time in traps with chicken liver for bait.
also catch one once in awhile when seen in small streams and use the meat for trout bait,, very good for Eastern brook, Dolly Varden and German Brown trout.

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## SEA Traveler

> ^Crayfish have claws too...


yup, all the fresh water crayfish I cought in the streams when I was a kid all had claws.  something to be avoided.

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## kingwilly

> But they keep dropping off the merry go round....wish i was better at this stuff...or could concentrate for longer periods and feed them proper..


Train the monkeys to do it.

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## Nawty

they are actually native to Oz and called redclaw...they grow quite big, not same lobster but.

They are farmed very successfully in Oz and they taste great.

I was thinking as mobs mentioned to use the river to pump water into concrete tanks and just let it flow out.

They are farmed in earthen ponds in Oz, but they need to be secure as they can climb near vertical walls to get out. they do not burrow into the earth like yabbies and some others of similar types.

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## blackgang

In South East Texas and in Louisiana they live everywhere, burrow down in your lawn during dry spells and stay with the water level and then during rains you can go out and pick them up and put em in a bucket.
Catch them and blue crabs in any slough or Bijou..

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## aging one

> Bijou..



Bijou or Bayou? :Smile:

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## mingmong

am hoping to bring some from Perth this year after the house is finished and can spend some time with themhave build a Klong from topping up the land so must do something with it, also told they dont like too clear a water, 
prefer a muddyer inviroment to clean?

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## Mrwizard

These things need pumped water (like a stream). Do not overfeed the water. You need some filtration. What you need more. The most difficult thing is that the biological quality of the water needs to be right. Yes like fish in an aquarium.

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## Larn

As a kid we would use a piece of meat on a string and a wire scoop to catch them in the local town dam in western QLD. 

If we needed more for a fishing weekend the usual place to catch them was any dam out on a farm. There we would use a homemade wire frame scoop about the size of a half 22 gallon drum cut lengthwise covered in 1/2" chicken wire . We'd throw the scoop into the dam and drag it to the bank. In good dams it was easy to bring in a dozen or more with each drag of the scoop.

If we wanted to keep them for a while we would store them in a concrete wash tub. The tub would have damp Kikuyu grass covered with a wet hessian bag. They would still be fresh kept like this for a couple of weeks.

I've also kept them for years in a fresh water fish tank. They grew well but i never had success with breeding them this way. 

My favorite ones were the big black ones I'd sometimes catch in small creeks. I usually found those ones near old rotting tree trunks in the creek.

That's why I was thinking they would do well in our dam in Thailand. Our dam doesn't flood in the wet season.

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## Nawty

Dams need to be secure as they can climb out very well.

The problem i have is that they say the water needs to be kept clean.

yet they grow very well in muddy dam water.

They say they eat rotting vegetation, in fact in dams they drop straw/hay around the edge of the water and thats what they feed on as it rots.

So, how do you keep the water clean and filtered AND provide rotting vegetaion ?

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## beazalbob69

Crayfish are scavengers they will eat any organic material plant or animal off the bottom doesnt need to be rotting. They should do well as long as the water is oxygenated well and not stagnant which is the problem with a lot of ponds in Thailand where a lot of Thai freshwater fish are fine. They would do better in a stream where the water is moving. You could probably make a pen out of netting and place it in a shallow stream with good current. Make sure its covered so they dont climb out. Make it large enough so they dont know their in a cage. Bury it in the bottom of the stream and put rocks on the floor of the cage because they like to live under rocks in caves that they dig out. Throw some small dead fish in there for food once in awile and mabey some fish pellets they will love that.

Only problem is when they do reproduce the hatchlings are very small and would go right through the netting. You would have to find the gravid females and remove them and put them into a tank of some sort until the babies hatch.

How to raise the babies is a whole other problem.

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## Thaiguy

> am hoping to bring some from Perth this year after the house is finished and can spend some time with themhave build a Klong from topping up the land so must do something with it, also told they dont like too clear a water, 
> prefer a muddyer inviroment to clean?


*Are these the same or similar to WA Marron ?*

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## robuzo

These here are a coupla crawdaddies I photographed out back of my cousin's place in a secluded little stream in Valley Forge National Park, USA:


I reckon the one on the right is about as big as the one in the OP.

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## fridgemagnet

One thing that is essential is water that contains a lot of LIME - so they can grow their shells/skeletons. In UK they like fast flowing (so highly oxygenated) chalk streams.
They dart about if lots of oxygen, and are sluggish if there is little oxygen.
The exoskeleton is constantly growing, underneath the old one, so acid ph water will soon see them off. Must have lime.

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## Deris

How do you farm for crawfish? You buy an underwater tractor and a swimming pool to load them into. Before that happens, you need to make sure that you planted plenty of crawfish seeds three months earlier, and that you fed them Tabasco (or any other fine Cajun seasonings) at least once a week.

Crawfish Farming

http://aquanic.org/publicat/govagen/ncae/cfshfrm.pdf

The second link the .pdf file looks like good iinfo. 

When you have a sack let me know and I'll send the boil spices!

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## Deris

Crawfish, Crawfish Production, Commercial Crawfish Production

Looks like you can grow rice and crawfish at the same time, bonus.

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## Deris

Something else I found in a .pdf

Crawfish Production Cycle
- Ponds stocked with adult broodfish in spring
- Water drained off in June to August
- Crawfish go into burrows where females lay eggs
- Pond is reflodded in October
- Crawfish feed on forage and grow
- Selective harvesting begins in late November
- Harvesting continues until following spring

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## Vansana

Very interesting thread indeed!

I have a small stream on my Land and built a dam so  I have now a nice pond. 

If i drop some redclaw into this pond do I get enough crayfish for a let´s say "monthly BBQ" or are all wandering away and leave my pond?

How many redclaw would i need to populate this pond?
The pond is ca 40m long and  6m wide and 1-2m deep.

Thank you very much for you answers.

Vansana

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## Nawty

They will walk away and they can climb out of very steep banks.

They do not burrow into the bank though.

You would have to fence it vertically about half a metre with fine mesh netting and have it below the surface.

If it flows in the wet, they will go with the flow.

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## Happyman

There is a trout fishery/ watercress farm on the river Chess near Rickmansworth Herts UK where we used to go for a days trout fishing for the BBQ.
Chalk stream spring fed both areas - came out of a big hole about a foot in diameter - icy cold .
Stick a couple of cans of beer in it ready for lunch ! 
After you finished fishing the owner used to let you wade down the rows of watercress in about 18 inches of water and with your landing net you could get half a bucket of crayfish to take home as well ! 
Have not been there for years but I have heard that there is an infection that has decimated the crayfish now that was brought in by Aquarium owners dumping their unwanted pets in the stream .
These are imported Australian or American ( not sure which) decorative coloured things .
They dont survive - probably because the water is too cold or something - but not before they infect the local variety.
The owner is this summer going to drain and dry out the beds and replant cress and restock with local crays I hear .

Broiled crayfish and watercress sandwiches - nearly makes me want to go back to the UK ! ( I did say NEARLY !!! :Smile: )

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## corvettelover

redclaw will leave a pond if they dont like it ,they just leave we have salted several dams waiting to get a big feed only to find it empty 3 months later, they like 28 degree water best
water rats love them found several in traps,
best to throw some tyres in or pieces of pvc pipe they will also live under galvanised sheet of iron,
we get them in nth qld up to 30cm long out of the dams most of them are green in colour with red claws and they do latch onto you if they can.
nsw have black and blue crays called yabbies and live in most river systems.
Do suggest you dont eat any with eggs under their tails  not only as they are breeding but the meat tastes like shit
lake tinaroo cairns is alive with them

Redclaw

australian museum of crayfish     Crayfish - Australian Museum

a stocking with some meat  dropped in dam or creek and pulled out normally gets a good feed they get hooked in rhe stocking with a torch you can see their eyes glowing red at night 
 Trap is easiest way to catch them they are partial to meat, bones spuds any vegtable matter

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## Deris

Now I'm getting hungry.

Some locals cookin up some them there mud bugs, ooohh yea!







Now thats some fine eatin yea.   :Smile:

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## corvettelover

> Now I'm getting hungry.
> 
> Some locals cookin up some them there mud bugs, ooohh yea!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...




hOW TOUGH IS THAT CORN  i dont cook yabbies for more than 3 minutes how long are you cooking them for???

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## Deris

Actually I wasn't at this event, but your right the corn looks uncooked.

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