Catching wild crawfish might tell you something about them. In various parts of Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado and Florida, I've caught many crawfish using a cloth bag and a piece of dead fish, or even raw chicken. They will cling to the cloth bag trying to eat the food inside so singlemindedly, that you could just tie a string to it, throw it in, wait 10 minutes then slowly pull it out. Depending on the season, it may be completely covered and you could get an instant meal. I've kept a pond with my dad in Tucson Arizona for many years with gold fish, 1 coy and some very small black fish I don't know the name of. I attempted to introduce crawfish several times and once they get to a certain size they try to run away and in arizona, that never ends well for them. I've found that if you have a shallow pond with liner, don't bother trying to keep crayfish unless you want to feed the birds. If you can keep a pond by digging into solid dirt or clay and just fill it with a hose with no liner, crawfish do well. The ponds in my families land in kentucky has a huge number of crawfish, and they are totally untended, but about 15 feet deep in the center and about 50 feet in diameter. They like to burrow into hard clay and if they don't find that they generally don't flourish. If you are able to get them to flourish, they will always run away when their population reaches a certain amount of fully grown members. If you want something to keep the fish population down, buy a small snapping turtle, but expect all you fish to have injuries.

What I do is offer my excess goldies to people who had a visit from a heron. That way I move them out a dozen or so at a time. Our goldfish are multiplying exponentially so I have lots and lots to give away. Sharon (one town over) and I have tried golden orfes, we shared a half dozen, but they all ended up dying within two years from one reason or another. We are going to try it again next spring though. With a half dozen each. My favorite idea on goldfish birth control is, I don't remember her name, she posted that her DH gets a few young trout every spring from his area county agent or whatever, and they fatten up on the fish spawn and tadpoles. When the water warms up in summer they are easy to catch - and then he puts them on the grill... I really want to try that some year! *giggle* :) Mary

Moke: I agree. Salmon require far more to raise, let alone breed in what you are planning. But like their cousins the Salmon, Trout require very high levels of oxygen in cold, fast moving water, even in summer, a difficult condition to reproduce in anything less than several 1000's of gallons set up in raceways, with chillers in the midst of a midwestern heat wave. Crappie grow quickly and can take pretty diverse water conditions, but the cost of rearing them to table size in anything less than several acres of natural pond that produced food for them could equal their sale value. Ditto Channel Cats. Easy to keep, but champion eaters. It's all a matter of cost-benefit ratios and high on that list is the cost of feed. Large commercial fish farms buy their's in huge bulk. I admit that I think aquaculture for food fish production doesn't really make ecconomic sense in a home GH in cold country, although I could be totally wrong. But I do know for a fact, that rearing a decorative species for the pet trade is another matter, especially if you work with a species that is desirable, fairly uncommon, pricey and doesn't require heated tanks. For instance: If you could get your hands on about 6 young captive bred Sterlet's, the odds favor at least one pair and given about 2000 gal and the right water conditions, they would get up to breeding size in a few years. But there too, their value as live pets is far greater than as fillets. A Fla. breeder that sells on eBay is getting $60.00 each for 4 inch babies. Why am I suggesting that you look into Sterlet's? Simple: The boom is in ponding. Sterlet's are very small sturgeon that won't outgrow a home pond, are totally peaceful and ideal pond mates to Koi, and like Koi, can be wintered under ice. All you need to keep them through the coldest winter is a small hole in the ice and an air stone. So your mature breeders could be wintered outdoors in a dormant state, while you fed up babies to sale size in the GH in stock tanks with just enough heat to keep them active and eating. Interesting comparison. A 30 inch wild carp is a cheap food fish. So cheap; most end up as cat food. Color it up really fancy, and it's 1000's of $ worth of Koi.

We usually have crappy weather, we get lots of rain, but this year it is beyond ridiculous. We are getting 4 or 5 days in a row with no let up in the rain and big storms, than a crappy day and then more stormy days. It feels like the house is going to lift off its foundations and that I am going to be off to kansas to see the wizard. I forget what the sun looks like! It has been above average temperatures (17c yesterday) one day then freezing the next. We will get 4-5 inches of snow that turns to rain and then gets washed away. I forget what the sun looks like! The dogs and I are getting fat as we have not been doing anything and it has been tuff to even get out for a decent walk. My poor better half is working in the middle east this week and the weather has totally delayed her travel plans forcing her to have to overnight in a hotel at London's Heathrow airport at a cost of 185 british pounds which is close to $400 for a stinking night. The rain took a pause today and I figured I would go out and check out the garden. First thing I notice was that the neighbour's fence had blown down. The moose was though the hill garden recently: Here is the square foot garden beside the cabin today: I think I was talking with EG about swiss chard a while back and here it is after several frosts. I cut this chard to the ground in the fenced square foot garden a couple weeks back and you notice even in this weather it has grown a bit. Amazing stuff and so good with garlic and a little chicken broth. The creek is eroding away beside the creek square foot garden. I hope it stops there, Next year I am going to have to put rocks on the side of the bank here. Here is the strawberry patch where the creek overflowed. The two new areas that I planted square foot style have a bit of sand and silt but I hope will be ok. The creek has really suffered some erosion this last month. ...