How Are Crayfish Farmed? A Detailed Analysis of the Difficulties

Under the rallying cry of “only delicious food cannot be let down,” more and more people are joining the ranks of crayfish eaters, which has kept crayfish farming in a sustained boom. But even though the crayfish sales market is good, many farmers say it is still hard to make money, and being able to break even is already good enough. So how exactly should crayfish be farmed? Where do the difficulties lie?

I. Where do the difficulties in crayfish farming lie?

1. Technical difficulties

For rural farming entrepreneurs who have never had any contact with crayfish farming, from choosing to farm crayfish to getting started with farming, most of them go “by feel.” They lack core crayfish farming techniques themselves, and few would hire a professional crayfish farming expert, since that would greatly increase farming costs, and for start-ups it is naturally all about keeping costs down.

Of course, this is only one aspect. Another problem is how to guarantee “professionalism of talent.” The market today is flooded with all kinds of “technical experts,” a real mix of good and bad, and for first-time crayfish farmers it is also very hard to tell whether the other party is the talent they are looking for.

In addition, there is currently no authoritative standard nationwide, nor systematic technical indicators. Most crayfish farming techniques have been figured out by real farmers through year after year of farming and continuously accumulating experience. But we also know that because the environmental and regional conditions of each area are different, even if farming is very successful in one region, that method is not necessarily suitable for all parts of the country.

2. Cognitive difficulties

This mainly refers to the fact that many crayfish farmers always invest blindly in the process of farming crayfish, lacking market analysis, and only when they finally settle the accounts do they realize they have made no money at all or even lost money. But in fact, whether it is crayfish farming or other planting and breeding projects, it is far from as simple as people imagine, and how to apply theory to practice also involves differences between cognition and action in specific operations.

II. How exactly should crayfish be farmed?

From the analysis above we can see that crayfish farming involves far too many technical points, and what is discussed here is still only theory, which can serve only as a reference. You then need to combine it with your own actual situation and practice to figure out your own farming experience.

1. Choose good fry and seed stock

Crayfish fry should be purchased nearby, which both meets regional requirements and reduces the mortality rate of the fry. It is best to buy and catch them on the spot, to prevent buying fry that were captured with drugs.

In addition, after selecting good crayfish fry, pay attention to sun protection, wind protection and oxygen supplementation during transport.

2. Choose good crayfish feed

(1) Grow water plants well

In terms of feed, the first thing to do is grow water plants well. “To farm shrimp, first grow grass” is also a view commonly recognized in the crayfish farming industry.

Water plants can both purify water quality, provide crayfish with shaded and safe habitat, and also serve as food for crayfish to fill their bellies.

For water plants, you can refer to Elodea (Canadian waterweed), Alternanthera philoxeroides (alligator weed), Hydrilla verticillata, Vallisneria (tape grass), Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) and Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce), among others.

(2) Animal-based feed

Crayfish are rather partial to animal-based feed. If the supply is insufficient, crayfish can easily end up killing and eating each other. Animal-based feed mainly includes snails, mussels, earthworms, tubifex worms, small trash fish, snail powder, silkworm pupa powder, pig blood, fish meal, shrimp meal, pig liver and lungs, and so on.

In addition, plant-based bait such as grains, soybean powder, soybean cake, rice bran, rapeseed cake and wheat bran, as well as artificial compound feed, can all be used to feed crayfish, but you must pay attention to balanced feeding.

3. Keep good control over crayfish diseases

Overall, prevention should come first, and prevention matters more than treatment. On the one hand, thoroughly clean the farming pond and keep the water quality fresh, achieving balanced nutrition, a suitable environment and no pathogenic bacteria; on the other hand, detect disease early and treat it. Common crayfish diseases include soft-shell disease, shell rot, black gill disease, crayfish plague, hemorrhagic disease, edema disease, enteritis, vibriosis and white spot syndrome, and they need to be treated with the right remedy.