Oddball;569471; said:
I use iodine in the culturing of the half a million crays I raise each year to ensure they have proper molts. I have to be wary of the amount of degenerative matter in their bins because of DO concerns when raising 150lbs of marketable crays per 450gal growout bin. My crays (Cherax quadricarinatus) are fed a 50:50 mixture of commercial sinking catfish pellets and rabbit pellets with the addition of frozen vegetables when approaching harvesting.
You know, we import Walkamin Strain Cherax Quads direct from Australia at the rate anywhere from 200kg on up every 6 weeks from the largest Walkamin production farm in Queensland Au. We pick out the best for our personal breeding stock and sell the rest for breeders and then import special for food stock and we are currently getting $35.00 per pound for Redclaw(non walkamin). Since food grade is of a lower genetic stock then breeding stock we are careful to keep them seperate.
We have NEVER had to use iodine and we have no problems with molting. As a matter of fact I cant remember the last one that died and I cant remember the last one that died from a bad molt. Also, our walkamin strain grow at a rate of over 55% faster than non-walkamin and we still have NEVER had to use iodine in our tanks.....
we use 650 gallon poly aquaculture tanks for berrieds and babies and 1,000.00 gallon poly aquaculture tanks for adults.....
We also have to be VERY careful about the water quality, but I have found that since we have overbuilt our system we can handle just about anything......
Mabye its just our water.....
