The red swamp crayfish is the Louisiana crawfish served by the pound at crawfish boils. It is native to the Gulf states and the Mississippi Basin, but it has been introduced to many other states and to parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. It's also called a mudbug.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Usually dark red, 2–5 in (5.5–12 cm) long, with a long head, long claws, and rows of bright red bumps on the claws. Males have larger claws than females. Young ones aren't red yet.
Look-alikes
Look at the middle of the back just behind the head: White River crayfish have a clear narrow gap () there, while in red swamp crayfish the two halves meet or nearly meet. Adult red swamps also have bright red bumps on the claws. Young ones are hard to tell apart.
Why they get mixed upThey share much of the same range and habitat, and a population in New York first reported as red swamp crayfish turned out to be White River crayfish.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Swamps and marshes
- Slow rivers
- Ponds and reservoirs
- Rice fields and ditches
- Range
- Native from northern Mexico and far southeastern New Mexico across the Gulf states to the Florida Panhandle, and north up the Mississippi Basin to southern Illinois. Introduced populations have turned up across much of the country, from Washington and Oregon to New York and New England.
- Preferred conditions
- Handles warm, muddy, low-oxygen water and even slightly salty water, and can survive dry spells of up to about four months.
Behavior
- Diet
- Eats a broad mix of plants and small animals.
- Activity
- Digs burrows that can damage levees, pond banks, and rice fields.
Life cycle
- Incubation
- Females carry their eggs under the tail until they hatch.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
- Threats
- Outside its native range it competes with native crayfish and carries and several parasites.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Most Louisiana crawfish farming is done in flooded rice fields, often in rotation with rice, and in 2018 about 93% of US crawfish farms were in the state.
- China is now the world's largest producer of farmed crawfish.
More species to explore
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