Crawfish with your Koi?

[ctrgojo]

So the boyfriend emails me today 'I picked up two new guys for the pond!' come to see witht he cameria pix its a blue and a white crawfish. He said he thinks there is dead guppy fish and some much in the pond and he thinks these guys will fix it. Well back int eh day when i had my 200 gal fresh tank i had some and they constantly were chasing my lion heads, do any of you guys have them in your ponds? Im also worried fi they will last the winter outside. Our pond is only 250 gal and the koi are pretty shy and like to hang out under the rocks and thats most likly where these new craw fish are going to go.... i just really dont wan teh fishes to get torn up :biggrin:

 

[DrCase]

I dont keep them in my pond
If you dont like them just catch them and tell him they got away :biggrin:

 

[BBK]

250g is pretty small for koi.

 

[ctrgojo]

heehee thats an idea Dr. yeah we've figuered that 250 is just too small, this winter we're bumping up to around 4000. its jsut a bit hard to work on the pond when im sitting in the Gulf :biggrin: but deployments bring home a good amount of extra cash to pour right into the pond

 

[Canardroti]

I've also put 2 crawfishes in my pond. (200 gallons)
I Regret it very much so now, they will become semi aggressive if they do not find food and will attack your fish. I am assuming your koi are not very big yet and could be threatened by those crawfishes. They might even injure them.
It was a mission to catch them and take them out of the pond! They are insanely fast and will swim accross the pond in a flash.
I had to go look for them at night with a flash light so they could not see me. Just stick to snails to clean your ponds, good luck

 

[duckyboy1975]

Yeah, they will definitely attack your koi if they are medium or small sized.

 

[ctrgojo]

thanks for your guy's replies. I called him last night and he said the koi are all okay. I expressed my concerns and hes keeping a close eye on them, just gotta wait until Dec for the big remod!! then teh craw fish will most likely have the bog all to themselves

 

[Hinezy]

I have a 1000 gallon pond with Koi, goldfish, minnow, crawfish, snails, newts, 3 painted turtles, and one stinkpot turtle. None of my turtles or crawfish have ever bothered my other fish. The key is keeping them well fed. My turtles and crawfish will eat koi pellets but I found the turtles love raw hotdogs and my crawfish love the algae disks sold for bottom feeders. The crawfish are more scavengers than hunters, while they are very fast, that's when swimming backwards in retreat. They can't move fast enough to be effective hunters.

 

[c2c7390]

i would wait till next spring before you line your new pond and move your fish

 

[oldmarine]

Hi ctrgojo,

Something else you might want to keep in mind. Snails are quite helpful in creating a balance in managing your pond. Crawfish will crush and eat snails, as well as disturbing your fish. If you were talking about a 4000 gallon pond where all of critters can create their own terratory, that would be different.

I have a 365 gallon pond because that all the room I have. Back in the design and planning stages, I decided that fish, snails, and frogs would have to be the limit for critters in my pond. They to co-habitate, and live in harmony with each other. Crawfish will actually crawl out of a pond and wander if they can't burrow into soil to hide.

 

[CPT_CRUNCH]

crawfish, never though of that. i guess i like them better on my plate

 

[oldmarine]

I agree.

 

[aji1217]

crawfish jet backwards. slowly drop a net behind them then spook it with your other hand, it should fly right into the net. or just grab it behind the pincers...takes a little practice, but dont be too scared. they really dont hurt that much, and I have never had one break the skin. (of course there were a few that I refused to go near..anything over 6" is not a crawdad IMO, its a lobster )

used to catch em by hand behind my house all the time when I was a kid. Good luck, they are fast.


And do NOT hold them up to your nose, no matter how funny you think it may be...

it ends with tears.

 

[ctrgojo]

no craw fish nose rings!
reports are still good as far as everyone getting along in the tiny pond thankfully

 

[jpendl10]

craw fish are a bad idea. They make the pond murky from burrowing in the bottom, that is if your pond has sediment. plus they will eat your plant roots and when all that food is gone they will go after your fish. The only thing people use craw fish for these days is for huge bass ponds to murk up the water to kill the under water grasses and keep algea blooms down by not letting them photosynthesize. there is nothing worse then getting your line caught in a bunch of plants and algea.