Can Human's Eat Marbled self-cloning crayfish. What is the best Crayfish to raise for food?

[SamanthaWilson4]

I want to raise my families food and thinking Crayfish would be awesome. Also want to do shrimp. Would Marbled self-cloning crayfish work for eating?

 

[Dispatch273]

I don't know about people eating them. I guess I don't see why you couldn't. I just wanted to say that I have raised these cool crayfish as feeders for my tropical fish(I breed and sell them) and they produce a lot of babies! They are pretty neat to watch as well. I also breed shrimp but they are tiny so I'm sure wouldn't make a good meal, they are just pretty If you do decide to raise them to eat I'd love to see how it turns out!

 

[SamanthaWilson4]

I have quail and chickens that would prob eat them lol. I have to find some first, but once I do think I will try eating them. You would not think they would hurt you or anything? I just don't want to be poisoned or something lol

I really want to get shrimp to raise to eat. I LOVE LOVE shrimp lol

 

[Dispatch273]

I honestly do not think they could hurt you from being eaten. The only thing I can think of is if you add chemicals to the water. I know people who have city water(no well) have to add chemicals to their water to neutralize the chlorine and chloramine from it. It says right on the bottle that it is not to be used for animals for consumption. I know you can age water to remove chlorine but you cannot do the same for chloramine. To remove chlorine from the water you put it in a container with an airstone(water needs to be aerated) for a minimum of 24 hours.


Shrimp are awesome!

 

[B3NZ0]

@SamanthaWilson4
Did you every try this out? Been thinking about breeding the marble crayfish for food production as well. My only worry is with them being so small would I be better off with red claw or maybe another breed.

 

[Adamjanisse]

Did anyone ever try this out with the marbled crayfish. It would seem like such a good idea to have a self replicating food source.

 

[netjunki]

I was curious about this question as well after a recent episode of EconTalk which mentioned them and discussion with my spouse. Apparently this is an active research topic and I found reference to a preprint about it. From the bit of the paper which can be read for free they aren't a great candidate for aquaculture... though still no answer about whether they are tasty.

It had an interesting picture in it comparing the sizes of different crayfish (found the paper though an image search to begin with) which shows why they might not be a good option for aquaculture.