However, crawfish producers should sample female crawfish prior to draining the ponds in May or June to insure enough females have advanced ovarian development to supply YOY early in the next production season. Forages Crawfish are benthic omnivores. They rely on aquatic flora and fauna, and detritus for their energy needs. Vegetation is the base of the detrital food web on which crawfish rely to satisfy their nutrient requirements. Volunteer terrestrial grasses do not supply sufficient forage to support high levels of crawfish production.
Water quality is also poorer in ponds with large amounts of terrestrial vegetation.
However, like terrestrial grasses, alligatorweed and smartweed do not supply sufficient food to sustain good crawfish growth and high yields. Additionally, aquatic plants can become so dense that they interfere with water circulation and crawfish harvest. Millet, though easy and inexpensive to plant, is not recommended as a crawfish forage. The preferred forage to plant for crawfish is rice, Oryza sativa. Rice is semi-aquatic and it has less negative impact on water quality compared to terrestrial plants.