Red swamp crayfish

[Kassie]

The red swamp crayfish has been caught in a dam in the Free State goldfields reports News24 - a breeding population...




Link to the report...

https://www.news24.com/Green/News/aggres...s-20180816

Probably a better source of information - comes from DEA site..

https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarele...vecrayfish

[Jim_From_Zim]

I saw that too. I wonder what it'll do to the barbel in the dam? 

And I never knew we even had our own version of fresh water crayfish... 

But that pic you posted above makes me want to whip out my Zman craw dad's that look exactly the same

[Kassie]

According to invasives.org.za - there are no indigenous crayfish in continental Africa...

Whatever crays we encounter - someone put them there...

I've know about the Marron and the Yabby from Oz - but this Red Craw is from Lousiana USA & Mexico

[Jim_From_Zim]

Which means either Forrest Gump is coming to town to harvest or they need to introduce bass into the pond so that the province guys from Free State have a venue to fish that actually falls into their geographical area....

Read the above with a beer in hand of course :-)

[Riprap]

Correct, we don't have any indigenous species although other species also occur in some rivers in the country.
North of us and even in Kariba there are major problems with certain species which have escaped aquaculture projects and the like.
Kassie, there is a commercial Marron farm in Kei Road fully legal and they have bass in the only escape area and which get chowed before they can escape into the wild.
Many years ago in my area I remember seeing and hearing of wild marron but none survived the cold otherwise these sightings would have re-emerged by now. People are naughty when they breed or release these type of aliens!

[Kassie]

Sometimes it may be tempting to see what effect introducing a new food source would do to a (predator sport fish) bass population in terms of growth and sizes....

However, the threat of a R10 million fine for introducing an alien species into a body of water is a strong enough deterrent for me.

These crays dig holes in river and dam banks and walls - weakening their structural integrityl

[Navrik]

There is some dams on the hill above Wildernis on a farm which used to breed freshwater crayfish back in the day. Dams also has bass. The farmer owner showed me one of them he caught on a trap. Means looking things.