Talk:Crayfish

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I think Crayfish as pets needs a seperate article, this one just doesn't cover even the basic info on trying to keep them alive and health kept as pets.

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i would like to question, about crayfish being shy, in the section of keeping them as pets. i keep crayfish (red claw). and from my experience, they are only shy when threatened, around the time of moulting, or are trying to rest. they don't make an effort to run off and hide unless actively chased. i would actually describe them as surprisingly bold and playful. or are mine just special?

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Why the removal of the trivia section. The image on Link's shirt is in fact a crawfish, as it is referenced as one in the game itself... it shouldn't have been changed to lobster... and thus leading it to be deleted.

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Sorry, my change was only "spelling". My copy/paste got confused, so my earlier edit summary is incorrect.Lisa Paul 22:29, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

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Any idea why this page is marked (though not actually listed) for cleanup? Looks pretty good to me. -- Juhaz 18:48, Jul 30, 2004 (UTC)

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What exactly are we looking for? LIke crayfish as pets.....anatomy? Crawldaddy888 20:25, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)

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Apologies to whoever will fix this, but I couldn't figure out what else to do. I found this deadend article — it's very long — which looks like something out of a 19c textbook, the language of it too old I think to be a copyvio, the subject of it, as far as I could tell, not likely to be a spoof so not a candidate for Vfd. The best thing I could think of was to dump it here in the hopes that a crayfish expert could decide what to do with it. — Bill 21:08, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

100-year-old 'monster' cray emerges from NZ deep

September 27, 2003 When New Zealand recreational fisherman Brian Hoult felt something on the end of his line, the last thing he expected to haul in was a 100-year-old "monster". Particularly when he was fishing for snapper. But somehow he ended up with a 1.34m long crayfish weighing 6.3kg on the end of his line. The monster is now in a holding tank where it will be kept until it sheds its shell. Mr Hoult intends to keep the shell, and put the cray back in the water, where it will grow a new shell. Mr Hoult had only been fishing for 10 to 15 minutes on Saturday before the crayfish attached itself to a whole calamari bait. "It felt a bit like a gumboot and didn't fight at all as I reeled it in," Mr Hoult said. The cray was not hooked up and had just held onto the bait and wouldn't let go as Mr Hoult reeled in 32m of line. A net was used to make sure the cray did not let go of the line as it reached the surface. Mr Hoult has given the cray to former NZ Museum of Fishes curator George Campbell to look after until it sheds its shell. Mr Campbell said the cray was a female packhorse crayfish and was possibly 100 years old. "This is one of the largest caught in recent years and, for today's standards, it is a monster," Mr Campbell said. The cray could grow up to 16kg, he said. "It is possibly too big to go into the funnel of cray pots and in too deep a water for divers," Mr Campbell said. This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/26/1064083194212.html

Potentital for expanding the article

I have just removed the {{expand}} tag from this article. Since there was no indication as to what needed expanding (diet? taxonomy? economic importance?), it is not helpful to have it there. Feel free to replace it, anyone, if you have specific ideas as to how the article should be expanded. --Stemonitis 07:46, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Quite right. We need an article on the Red Swamp Crawfish (Procambarus clarkii, with a redirect from Red Swamp Crayfish), a major farmed species of crayfish. According to the FAO, some 34,000 tonnes were produced in 2003. The detailed FAO FIGIS statistics reveal that almost all of that was produced in the U.S., which is and has been for decades the major producer. There would need to be a sister article on Crayfish farming. Diseases of crayfish could be discussed. (We'd need to find out what caused the dip in production in the year 2000. Diseases?) In Europe, it seems that most crayfish are caught, not farmed. The FIGIS aquaculture statistics reports only some 20 to 30 tonnes in 2003... (would have to check the FIGIS capture databases, though). P. clarkii in particular is also a highly invasive species and is, as an exotic species, often considered a pest. I know that North-American crayfish escaped from small-scale farms or aquariums cause problems in Europe. This article could do with at least some mention of such things. Then there would need to be stubs for the families and genera, e.g. Cambaridae. Ideally, one would be able to naviagte through the taxonomic hierarchy down to P. clarkii. Oh, and before you ask me to do all this: I'm still busy writing up these farming issues we recently discussed. Turns out that there's enough material there for two brand-new articles, so I'll be occupied for quite a while! Lupo 28 June 2005 12:26 (UTC)

I have plans (not immediate) to write a bit about P. clarkii's role as a non native, invasive in Southern California. I was involved in a research project attempting to ascertain the effect of P. clarkii on three amphibian species, though we collected data on micro inverts as well. I need to research a bit about the history of their introduction to S. California though, and find time in my schedule. Shawn M. O'Hare 16:57, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

n.b. I have just created the article Procambarus clarkii (with redirects from a great many potential common names). Please feel free to add/amend at will. --Stemonitis 16:37, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Intro

I did not feel fully justified in wantonly editing, so post here. I have some objection to the statement made in the intro about the crayfish living in unpolluted waters. P. clarkii in Southern California routinely live in waters that are heavily polluted, at least to the degree that more sensitive species no longer exist (such as amphibians). In fact some streams I have personally surveyed will contain crayfish, algae, and little else. There is a marked difference though between crayfish in streams close to urban development and streams that are more removed from civilization. In both cases you might find few micro invertebrates, almost no amphibians, but in the more polluted stream the crayfish are extremely sluggish, almost as if drunk. They are much less aggresive. Shawn M. O'Hare 17:05, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Suggestions for more info

Agree that this article needs something on reproduction and anatomy. I came here to try to confirm a high school memory that crayfish are occasionally hermaphroditic - which would mean that the one I pulled out of a flood puddle will or will not reproduce in my aquarium all by its lonesome self. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.218.149.74 (talk) 16:17, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

• I'd like to see more information added on the classification, evolutionary relationships, and fossil record of crayfish. MrDarwin 19:26, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
  • I just read 100 science facts which noted that crayfish have two hundred chromosomes. I think some summary about the rammifications of this trait as compared to say a species with a mere forty six. 06:12, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

• Crayfish anatomy is not covered at all. Like, tail fan, sensory hair... See my recent Lateral giant neuron; an interesting fact, but redlinked. mikka (t) 23:30, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Crayfish anatomy is covered at decapod anatomy. At the moment, it only covers external anatomy, and not in much detail, but it is there. It would be wasteful to repeat anatomical information at every article, which is why I tried to centralise it at decapod anatomy. I have now added the term tail fan to it, but have made no reference to sensory hairs or giant lateral neurones. Please feel free to expand it. Anatomy unique to crayfish belongs at crayfish, of course, but since crayfish are pretty plesiomorphic in terms of gross anatomy, decapod anatomy is a reasonable place for discussions of more general crayfish anatomy. --Stemonitis 08:06, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
    • There are two problems with the article decapod anatomy: first, how an ignorant like me would know that I have to read Decapod anatomy and not, say Malacostraca anatomy. Second, no one suggests to "repeat". A common wikipedia tradition is to provide summaries of basic subtopics (Haven't you notice "Main article: Blablabla" after secton titles in longer aticles?). Currently even a "see also" link from "crayfish" to its anatomy is absent. mikka (t) 08:44, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

• Also, nothing is said about crayfish reproduction. ~Tommy Kronkvist talk contribs 20:51, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Bias

Apart from US bias, is there anything to support: Crayfish are eaten in Europe and China, but they are perhaps most popular in Louisiana, where the standard culinary term is crawfish. ? --BarryNorton 18:58, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Not really, though, from my experience growing up in Louisiana and now living in China (Beijing, Shanghai, and now Hong Kong), the crayfish consumption here is nothing like that in Louisiana. (Crabs, though! Shanghai/Zhejiang have some of the best crabs in the world and people across China can't get enough of them when they're in season. At least a shop a block for Zhejiang crabs in Hong Kong.) I've edited that pariticular section in attempt to remove some of the LA/US bias. --Alai

Life on land?

Last night, I saw a crayfish walking down the street in front of my house (I live in Austin, TX.) There aren't any rivers, lakes or creeks very close, and it wasn't raining yesterday, though we've had a reasonable amount of rain in the last few days.

In any event, I was hoping to find some comments about where crayfish can live -- I was really surprised to find one just walking down the street like it was no big deal -- but the article doesn't talk about that, beyond a comment about how they can live underground. Procambarus clarkii says that this species can tolerate dry spells, so perhaps that's what it means -- they can live on land. dougmc 18:45, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I am wondering that the street-walking crayfish you saw might have lived in the sewerage or come with the flood water. --Purpledragonfly 04:19, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Crawfish will live just about anywhere there is water including drainage ditches. Is there any wastewater ditches in your vicinity? --jacksjb

Potentialy Crayfish can live anywhere that has a water source. they're water demands usually aren't too high and i've found some in even the nastiest water water where no other creature lives. Crayfish a slightly different from fish. They don't have to stay underwater all the time and they can typically walk around on land for a while as long as theres some water source even if it's just a little puddle of water. they'll find a way to live. That's why they're are rather impressive little creatures, if you ask me.--Dillon239

Astacus fluviatilis

Why do Astacus fluviatilis redirect to this article? It has been removed from the Astacus article (see the early history of that article, when I created it). Why? Kricke 20:48, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

crayfish as pets

My brother caught some crayfish in his yard and put them in his freshwater aquarium. It's about a 5 gallon tank and feeds them why the guy at petsmart said to feed them, but it appears that they are just dying out of the blue for some reason and we are trying to find out why. Can they live completely summerged in water at all times or do they have to have a way to get dry occasionally? 72.24.18.222 19:19, 2 June 2007 (UTC)[email protected]

Are they killing each other. The main casualitys I have had with Crayfish is that Adult's are very aggresive and they may kill each other at times. So it's possible if you have several of them for htem to be eating each other. Or even some fish such as cichlids will go after Crayfish. They can live being submerged in water I've kept Crayfish for years in Aquariums. Also what did the guy tell you to feed them? none of that expensive pet food crap I hope... because if they did you got jipped. Crayfish work well with eating things such as peas, or carrots, or corn... or anyother vegetabile. but they also like meat. I used to feed mind little slices of turkey and they loved it, but now I feed them either vegetables, those shrimp pelets, algae tablets, or even standard fish flakes. Crayfish really aren't picky eaters.--Dillon239

I added a different photograph under the Pets section, the one that was there was very small and not very clear. Enziarro 23:54, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, most crayfish are quite sensitive to water quality, and will be stressed (and sometimes die) to levels of ammonia that barely register on home test kits. It's best to fishless cycle their tanks or use tanks matured with fish. Keeping them in an uncycled tank usually doesn't work out. They're prone to stress from overcrowding (I go by about 1 square foot of tank floor per cray), as well. When stressed, they often fail to molt properly. After molting, even healthy crays are vulnerable targets to tankmates. My red swamp crayfish would stalk other crayfish that were about to molt and pull their legs off while they were still soft.--97.84.167.225 (talk) 15:59, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Central America?

I came to this article because I was looking to see if I could identify something my Salvadoran husband refers to as "camarón del río," which translates as "river shrimp." I thought it might be crayfish, but he indicates that what is pictured here has a different name in El Salvador (chacalín) and that this river-shrimp thing is bigger than the crayfish in the first picture. I'm asking because if camarón del río" IS crayfish, we need to edit the article to include the Central American type (and if not, I'll still be looking for what a camarón del río is). Lawikitejana 05:54, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

"Camarón del río" usually refers to Macrobrachium rosenbergii, which is a large (up to 12") freshwater prawn.--97.84.167.225 (talk) 16:03, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Brain Butter?

How can the brains of crayfish be referred to as a butter when the brains of standard sized crayfish [for eating] are presumably practically miniscule in size? The next sentence says that after eating the shell, it can either be discarded or used as decoration. . . . We could say that about KFC, but we would not because it's frivolous and obvious, not to mention unappealing. This article is good---and I don't mind that the 'Crayfish as Pets' section lies within its main body---but we should tighten and polish it more. --PLK

Quite right. The brain section has gone, as has the "discard or decorate" sentence. I'm sure the food section could be improved a lot more (there could be a long article just on that), but it's not my speciality. --Stemonitis 16:07, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Does Crawfish have Iodine?

My step dad is allergic to the iodine in Shrimp and said he thought Crawfish had Iodine in them also. Does anyone know if that is true? He has never tried them because of what he thought. He has an allergic reaction to shrimp. He swells up, his eyes, face and looks awful, so I did not want to expose him if they are the same. 74.171.41.185 (talk) 13:50, 27 April 2008 (UTC)Sherry

I am not a doctor, and Wikipedia is not place to solicit medical advice. That said, here's a nice article regarding your question. Better safe than sorry, have him order the filet. Keegan^talk 06:17, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

What do they eat?

Of course, we like to eat them, but what do they like to eat? Please add that to the article. 24.26.128.185 (talk) 16:02, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Anything, literally. Mine mostly eat sinking catfish pellets and frozen bloodworm, but virtually any aquatic pet food will work. Fresh vegetables, culled fry (especially if they're not free-swimming yet), some snails, and live shrimp all work as well. You want to avoid anything with copper, which is toxic to them, as well as sick fish or fish that died from illness. --97.84.167.225 (talk) 16:12, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

If most of the world's crawfish come from Louisiana, where we call them crawfish, then shouldn't that be the term?

It currently reads: "98% of the crayfish harvested in the United States come from Louisiana, where the standard culinary terms are crawfish or écrevisses." If most of the world's crawfish come from Louisiana, and we call them crawfish as always have and always will, then why not call them crawfish in the article? The most common species eaten around the world, is what we produce here, as crawfish, is it not? I just Googled and found that Louisiana produces 90% of the World's Crawfish, and there is reference to government studies. When we ship them to other nations and elsewhere, are they still labeled crawfish? What do most of the people that eat them worldwide call them? Dream Focus (talk) 23:43, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I have NEVER heard them called "crawfish" before reading this article. Perhaps 90% of the world's crayfish comes from Louisiana, but the majority of the world's English speaking population call them crayfish. 91.85.189.219 (talk) 20:02, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

I've done some looking into this, and I do remember Alton Brown on an episode of Good Eats saying something akin to this "The name crawfish was used in 1817 by Thomas Say, the first American zoologist to study these animals. Crayfish was coined by the English scientist, Thomas Huxley, about 50 years later." which i read here. If this information is accurate wouldn't it mean that Crawfish is the first, and proper term and that Crayfish is simply a deviation or secondary name, akin to Crawdad? I've always heard them called Crawfish, and heard Crayfish referred to as an incorrect pronunciation of the name.--Kahn Iceay 22:05, 30 April 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kahniceay (talk • contribs)

pictures in the article

I like the pictures in the article, instead of a gallery, it just making more sense. I tried to upload one from a government website, showing how the ecological disaster of the zebra muscles, spread on crayfish used as bait, but its not lining up quite right. I believe this event is an important in the history of crayfish. Got to show the good with the bad. Dream Focus (talk) 16:22, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

crayfish

Our class is learning about crayfish. We need some info. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 157.246.152.61 (talk) 19:36, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Spelling war: "crayfish" versus "crawfish"

This is a common battle and drive-by correction for this article. Obviously people have strong opinions on this matter. The article title uses a 'y' so demands the spelling be the same. Conversely, there are more Google hits for 'w' than 'y', with 1.3 uses of 'w' for every usage of 'y'. Please tell me what you think. Craig Pemberton (talk)

Wikipedia policy for variant spellings is not to change the status quo. See WP:RETAIN: "If an article has evolved using predominantly one variety, the whole article should conform to that variety, unless there are reasons for changing it based on strong national ties to the topic." However, it is important that the article is consistent in its usage, which it isn't at the moment. In addition to WP policy, the Harvard study cited in the article suggests that usage is split about 50:50 in the US. The OED, Merriam-Webster, and dictionary.com all favour crayfish giving crawfish as a variant spelling. —Jeremy (talk) 21:49, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

90% of the world's crayfish from Louisiana?

The article mentions that 90% of the world's crayfish comes from Louisiana. It also mentions that Scandinavians "traditionally" eat crayfish, that China and America are "the biggest sources of import today" (in Scandinavia, true), that crayfish was once very important to Mexican nutrition, that Australasia is a major source of crayfish, and that China has become a major consumer of crayfish.

Further, the source article proclaiming the 90% statistic was a document written nineteen years ago. Come to that, there's not much in the way of sources for the "Crayfish as Food" section.

All things considered, the 90% statistic seems very odd given some of the other information in the article. Can somebody confirm that this statistic is still accurate today?