how do you identify female Signal Crayfish ?

[Andy_1984]

i have been trying to find information on how to identify female signal crayfish but just cant find anything online at all.

[Phone]

Andy,

 

You have to share a ciggy bankside.

 

Phone

[Ken L]

Dead easy if they happen to be in berry. Failing that, have a look here.

[JV44]

They squeel the most when you stick em in the pan ??

[Andy_1984]

thanks Ken.

 

im not breeding them btw

[Ken L]

Have you actually got them in Scotland yet ?

I've still yet to see one.

I know that they don't exactly jump on lures but I would have expected to see one on a winter pike bait by now.

[Andy_1984]

they are apparently becoming quite a pest in some waters. heres some capture figures from loch ken

 

3879 crayfish (2352 in capture, 1527 recaptures) caught before trapping programme

 

3205 Crayfish (1489 in capture, 1716 in recapture) caught after trapping programme

 

i think these figures are from 2009.

 

and thats just loch ken, here are some more locations they have been reported at:

 

Upper Clyde

River North Esk (ponds); Lugar Burn/main stem

Pow Burn

Rankeillour Burn (Fife)

River Teith (pond and ditches)

River Tyne (stillwater fishery, East Lothian)

Tiel Burn (Fife)

Murray Burn

Kirkcudbrightshire

Skyre Burn

River Nairn

Dighty Water (Dundee)

River Earn

River Ardle (pond and small stream)

Shee Water (pond and small stream)

Rivers Ettrick and Till

Kirkbank (Teviot Water)

 

i never knew we had so many. two barriers were installed between the clyde and annan to prevent the spread from clyde to annan

Edited August 20, 2011 by Andy_1984

[Zigs]

Ken's got his own Loch ?

 

Thats not fair, is there a Loch Zig as well

 

I've been told the river Brit is full of them but i've never caught one, just common shore crabs that haven't worked out its fresh water.

[Brian Carragher]

i have been trying to find information on how to identify female signal crayfish but just cant find anything online at all.

 

The difference is in their crushing claws and their tails

 

Males have large crushing claws either left or right handed and the shell around their tails is shorter on the side of the tail and therfore more streamlined

 

Females can be lef or right clawed and have much smaller crushing claws than males and the sides of their tails carry on down past the underside of the tail as thats the area where they carry and hold their eggs so if you're looking at the tail segments you should see what appears to look like crocodile type linked shell thats quite sharp when you grab hold of it

 

Hope thats clear

 

Loch Ken crayfish, very yummy boiled up on the bankside

[Andy_1984]

Nice one Brian