Thinking about those whites
May 10, 2010
It is the time to be considering next season, so many of the posts between now and September will be related to restocking, pond management, and forage crops. It seems much, if not all, of the forage crop has died off and voluntary vegetation is prominent (aquatic weeds).
Many have pulled traps and are preparing for the next season, one particular question that sticks out is: “Where do these Whites comes from?” Well, the Whites are a native species to Louisiana along with many others. So they are definitely around in their natural habitat with the Reds. There are two species of crawfish primarily found in crawfish production ponds: Red Swamp (Procambarus clarkii) and White River (Procambarus zonangulus). The species that are most preferred and prevalent are the Red Swamp; however, sometimes the Whites can be problematic if there are too many in a pond. The problem is primarily that buyers tend to frown upon seeing too many Whites in a catch. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to get rid of the Whites that are in the pond but the good news is that they actually carry less babies than the Reds by almost half. If you plan to restock this year, try not to put Whites in the broodstock.
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_livestock/aquaculture/crawfish/
