34 JUNE 2025 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG range, F. lancifer tolerates high temperatures and low oxygen levels throughout a significant part of the year, while in more northerly habitats it adapts to cold winter conditions. As is the case with most temperate cambarid crayfishes, the life history of F. lancifer is based on egg-laying in mid- to late winter, hatching in the spring, growth through the summer, and maturation and mating during autumn months (Black 1972). As such, the reproductive cycle, high fecundity (Page 1985) and distinct growing season of this species directly complement the commercial cycle for the cultured procambarid crayfishes in Louisiana, suggesting potential to provide summer and fall harvests to supply markets either in monoculture or in rotation with traditional rice-crawfish double cropping. Tanks managed as outdoor research mesocosms have been used for many years to simulate conditions in commercial crawfish production ponds (Lutz and Wolters 1986 and 1989, Lutz and Richard 2012). In Louisiana’s extensive crawfish aquaculture industry ponds with relatively low densities tend to produce the largest animals, which command higher prices, while ponds with excessive reproduction often suffer from “stunting,” a density-related cessation of growth prior to the end of the harvest season. Lutz and Wolters (1986) demonstrated a significant relationship between stocking density and growth in juvenile P. clarkii over a broader range of stocking densities in mesocosm tanks, with average total lengths ranging from 91.5 mm for animals stocked at 1 per m2 to 62.5 mm for those at 16 per m2. Similar relationships between density and growth have been reported in many other aquatic species, including other crayfishes. Brown et al. (1995) reported that increased stocking densities resulted in reduced weight gains in Orconectes virilis and Morrissy et al. (1995) demonstrated that although growth in the Australian crayfish Cherax teniumanus is inversely and curvilinearly related to density, the relationship becomes positive linear when expressed as pond bottom area per individual crayfish. Commercial crawfish aquaculture represents one of the United States’ largest aquaculture enterprises. In 2023, 90,321 tons of crawfish were harvested across 145,363 ha in the state of Louisiana, with a farm-gate value of $256,869,785. The Red Swamp Crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) comprises over 90 percent of Louisiana’s crawfish harvest, while the White River Crawfish (P. zonangulus) accounts for the remainder. Production of these species is generally constrained by a highly seasonal life cycle based on fall reproduction (corresponding with fall flooding), winter and spring growth and harvest, and summer aestivation in burrows. The growth of vegetative material (rice, sorghum-sudangrass or native wetland plants) is encouraged in dewatered ponds during the summer to provide a cost-effective forage-based food web for the subsequent season. For several decades, industry observers have cited the seasonality of Louisiana’s crawfish harvest as a constraint to expanding markets beyond traditional boundaries. Availability of harvestable crawfish during the summer and fall months would help address this problem through reduction of the substantial “down-time” currently imposed on the value chain by the Procambarus life cycle. However, previous attempts to extend the production season for P. clarkii by utilizing a forage crop planted during a dry winter season, such as wheat, or through the use of commercial feeds, have had poor or inconsistent results due to the distinct seasonality of the species’ life history (Culley et al. 1986). Faxonius lancifer [formerly Orconectes lancifer (Hagen, 1870)], is known throughout the southern and central United States as the “shrimp crawfish” (Figure 1). It is native to the Gulf coastal plains from Texas to Mississippi and northward to Illinois. It has been described as unique among North American crayfishes in its shrimplike appearance, possessing a large tail, small claws, and no obviously close relatives (Page 1985). Most reported collections of F. lancifer indicate a typical habitat of oxbow lakes and other permanent water bodies with mud or mud and sand bottoms (Penn 1952; Black 1972; O’Brien 1977; Niethammer et al. 1984). In the southern extent of its Aquaculture Potential of Faxonius lancifer Miriam Contin Ortega, Joseph Bischoff and C. Greg Lutz PHOTO 1. The “Shrimp Crawfish,” Faxonius lancifer, may have potential to expand the harvest season and geographic range of crawfish aquaculture in the U.S.
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