Crayfish: breeding and keeping at home. The harm and benefits of crayfish

They construct various reservoirs and ponds, used not only for watering and irrigating the soil, but also as a breeding ground for crayfish. To understand how profitable and useful this business is, you need to look deep into the process of breeding crayfish.

Benefits of Crayfish Breeding

Empty ponds and water trenches filled with crayfish can be a great source of income for any family. It is known that arthropods are valued for their high-quality and healthy meat containing a large amount of protein. Dishes from them are served in many restaurants around the world, various salads, sauces, side dishes are prepared from crayfish meat and served as a main course. All this indicates that a homestead with crustaceans can do a good job and bring considerable profit, but this is only possible after 5 years of investment and work. Despite this, after the first settlement of the pond, the fruits of the work will delight the owners for another 10 years.

About crayfish

Getting down to work on self-cultivation of crayfish in your own reservoir, you need to understand the varieties, biological processes, features and methods of raising both young animals and adults. On the territory of our country there are several types of arthropods, which differ little from each other. Crayfish are animals that breathe with gills and have 10 legs. The shell is quite dense and covered with chitin. The most famous within Russia are broad-toed crayfish, whose claws, in comparison with the rest, differ in width and power. There are also long-clawed (narrow-clawed) and thick-clawed crayfish.

Creating a favorable habitat for crayfish

Under natural conditions, crayfish prefer to stay in calm running water, located mainly on the shady banks of rivers, lakes and canals. Ten-legged animals settle in burrows formed under the roots of old trees and plants that are in the reservoir. Crayfish are very demanding in relation to the purity of water, therefore, even at the stage of planning a pond, it is necessary to ensure that the water changes as often as possible and is not subjected to heavy pollution and flowering. Also, do not forget about the oxygen saturation and water temperature (should be 17-18 degrees Celsius), intended for reproduction and breeding of crayfish at home. When starting to build a reservoir, you should purchase sandy soil or rocky soil, in which crustaceans love to settle down. River inhabitants that fill the reservoir get along well with trout, which is not their food competitor.

Feeding crayfish

In addition to creating favorable conditions for normal life and reproduction, arthropods must be provided with a sufficient amount of food. Asking the question of what river crayfish eat, you can find a definite answer: everything.

Being omnivorous creatures, they eat any food they meet on their way. Particularly popular in their diet are plants growing along the banks of rivers and lakes and containing lime: reed, reeds, hornwort, and so on. Also, crayfish prefer protein, which is naturally present in the form of snails, small fish, worms, various insects and tadpoles. A creature's diet changes as it ages. He moves from smaller and vegetable food to larger and animal food.

Walking around the markets in search of what to feed river crayfish, you can buy food. Today, there are various compound feeds created to feed river dwellers bred at home. Often such additives contain a high percentage of sprouted wheat and other cereals that replenish the natural needs of crustaceans and do not pollute the water. The optimal ratio of useful vitamins and minerals provides a complete and healthy complementary food. The herbal ingredients that make up the feed help to resist various diseases that occur in crayfish. In the process of organizing the diet, it must be remembered that river crayfish eat quite a bit, so it is better to underfeed them than to overfeed them. An excess of nutrients in a pond can lead to their decomposition, pollution and clouding of the water, as a result of which all the inhabitants of the pond begin to die.

Raising crayfish

The water temperature in the reservoir in the summer should fluctuate between 15-20 degrees. There should be 2-3 containers on the territory, installed for the purpose of transplanting young animals from their large relatives, capable of devouring the younger generation. You can also purchase an artificial reservoir, which is presented on the market in a large assortment: pools, ponds, and the like. The main task of the purchased structure is to ensure rapid water circulation, therefore its shape should be oblong, and the depth should not exceed 7 meters. Small pools and aquariums are mainly used for breeding and hatching larvae from eggs, after transplanting the females into prepared containers. The material in which the crayfish will be located must be harmless, so metal dishes should be replaced with plastic or organic glass.

Building a reservoir for crayfish with your own hands

If it is not possible to purchase a ready-made reservoir, you can build an artificial one yourself. Building a pond for such a creature as crayfish at home is a rather laborious task. First you need to choose a place for construction, next to which there is a lake, river or pond. Otherwise, the cost of an artificial reservoir will increase significantly. An important role in construction is played by a waterproof bottom, on which the entire future structure will depend. At the bottom, special waterproof and waterproofing layers are usually placed to protect the pond from leakage. In the first years of breeding crayfish, it is recommended to use a purchased tank, which is distinguished by reliability and a longer service life.

The benefits and harms of crayfish

Very few fans of eating a sea dinner know how many useful vitamins and elements river crayfish have. The benefits of breeding crab relatives in the backyard are obvious, and since they live only in a clean environment, they can be consumed without any fear. In addition to rapidly digestible protein, cancer meat contains a large amount of calcium, iron, phosphorus and cobalt. A wide range of vitamins such as E, D, B, C, sulfur and folic acid are found in their meat. Nutritionists recommend eating crayfish while on a diet, as their meat is a fairly low-calorie product - only about 80 kcal is contained in 100 grams of the product. Doctors also advise including cancerous meat in the diet if there are disorders in the functioning of the kidneys, heart, and gastrointestinal tract. By eating crayfish for some time, you can cleanse the liver and remove bile from the body. Iodine, which is in large quantities in them, serves as a prophylaxis of the thyroid gland.

River crayfish: contraindications

Speaking of contraindications, it should be mentioned that arthropods are prohibited for people who have individual intolerance. Also, allergies can cause seafood, and in particular crayfish. The benefits and harms of crayfish are incomparable concepts, since the amount of nutrients, vitamins and macroelements in the creature's meat far exceeds the harm and any of its shortcomings.