Survival and Growth of Juvenile Freshwater Crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus Dana Fed Two Raw Diets and Two Commercial Formulated Feeds

Juvenile mortality of 85-90% reported in wild crayfish populations after the first summer life is a major problem in culture. Very little is known about feeding, management and pathology during the early life stages. Laboratory studies are necessary in order to optimize feeding and management strategies to improve survival. In general, raw diets used under laboratory conditions have not improved the results obtained with formulated feeds, although the different experiments have had highly variable results. In addition, fresh feeds in crayfish culture give rise to serious difficulties in storage and management. Therefore, the experiments described in this paper were conducted to evaluate the response of stage 2 juvenile Pacifastacus leniusculus to commercial feeds formulated for other aquatic species compared with raw diets.