Crayfish are big
business now! You've seen buckets of boiled crawdads in beer commercials;
"Red Lobster" restaurants sell them as spicy "cajun popcorn;" Popeye's
fried chicken franchises have a fried crayfish dinner. That's nationwide.
In Louisiana and Texas they have been sought after for generations as a
delicacy.
Crayfish can be
grown to a large, food marketing size anywhere in the USA except Alaska.
The pond habitat can be any size and need not be over a foot deep. The
crayfish habitat can be on swamp or marginal land, and feed can be easily
grown, while supplemental feeds are inexpensive. The feed conversion ratio
is higher than any other meat-producing animal or fish. The flesh is similar
to shrimp, crab, and lobster. The crayfish need less than a year to mature,
breed and fatten up for harvest. They are self-stocking after the initial
stocking the first year.
Small Scale Crayfish Farming covers: