Growth, processing measurements, tail meat yield, and tail meat proximate composition of male and female Australian red claw crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus, stocked into earthen ponds

Small (0.7 g) juvenile red claw, Cherax quadricarinatus, were stocked in earthen ponds (0.04 ha) in Kentucky and grown for 86 days so that measures of growth, survival, processing characteristics, and proximate composition of tail muscle in male and female Australian red claw crayfish could be obtained. A commercial marine shrimp was fed to all red in two separate feedings, each consisting of one-half of the total daily ration between 0800-0830 and between 1530-1600 hours for the duration of the culture period. Total weight and number of red claw from each pond were recorded at the harvest. Forty red claw from each sex we re randomly sampled, chill-killed by lowering the body temperature in an ice-bath, and frozen (-20°C) for processing measurements and proximate composition. Red claw were removed from the freezer, thawed, individually weighed to the nearest 0.01 g, and then were hand-processed so that weights of chelae, tail, and tail muscle were obtained to the nearest 0.01 g. After 87 days, red claw had a final average individual weight of 59.6 g, weight gain of 8,413%, survival of 64.0%, yield of 903 kg/ha, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 4.63. When analyzed by sex, males had significantly (P < 0.05) higher final individual weight (71.05 g) compared to females (53.65 g); higher (P < 0.05) chelae weight (13.1 g for males compared to 6.84 g for females); higher tail weight (25.53 g for males compared to 20.38 g for females); higher tail muscle weight (18.99 g for males compared to 14.89 g for females); and higher cephalothorax weight (32.41 g for males compared to 26.44 g for females; Table 2). There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the percentage moisture, protein, lipid, fiber, and ash in the tail muscle of male and female red claw when analyzed either on a wet-weight basis and averaged 81.0%, percentage protein averaged 16.46%, percentage lipid averaged 0.16%, fiber averaged 0.1%, and percentage ash averaged 1.42%. Results from the present study indicate that red claw can be grown as a commercial aquaculture species in locations with limited growing seasons, and that male red claw grow larger, have larger chelae, and higher tail muscle weights compared to females so that it might be economically advantageous to stock all-male populations of red claw in ponds to achieve maximum production. Further research on growth and processing yields of red claw should be conducted to assist the industry.