The global trade in crayfish as pets

Abstract

Abstract. The sale of crayfish in the pet trade has increased in recent decades, and a substantial fraction of the world s entire range of crayfish species is available in the pet trade. The market for pet crayfish creates two major concerns: the potential for over exploitation of natural populations of crayfish to supply the pet trade, and the negative consequences resulting from the release of non-indigenous crayfish into natural habitats. The chain from the source of crayfish to the final owner can be lengthy, and each step in the supply chain needs to be studied by different methods. While there are often regulations intended to limit the trade of crayfish as pets, they differ widely from place to place and seem to have limited success in changing the behaviour of owners of pet crayfish.

Cherax quadricarinatus(von Martens) has invaded Indonesian territory west of the Wallace Line: evidences from Java

“…In Indonesia, semi-intensive farms producing redclaw for food and subsequently also for ornamental purpose were established early as 2003 (Edgerton, 2005). Redclaw is one of the most popular crayfish species kept in aquaria (Chucholl, 2013;Papavlasopoulou et al, 2014;Patoka et al, 2014a;Faulkes, 2015). Although Snovsky and Galil (2011) mentioned ornamental production in Israel, Indonesia has been recently identified as the leading exporter of redclaw into Europe via the international pet trade .…”

Long-anticipated new records of an ectosymbiotic branchiobdellidan and an ostracod on the North American red swamp crayfish, <i>Procambarus clarkii</i> (Girard, 1852) from an urban stream in Tokyo, Japan

“…International trade of live crayfish and shrimp is growing rapidly in the aquarium industry, owing to their popularity as domestic pets (Faulkes 2015;Patoka et al 2015Patoka et al , 2016. Although several countries have imposed restrictions on the importation and transport of crustaceans, North American crayfish continue to be traded between Europe and East and Southeast Asia (Kawai, personal communication).…”

East European crayfish stocks at risk: arrival of non-indigenous crayfish species

“…These species had been identified as the most common also in other European countries where the pet trade in crayfish was analysed, such as in Germany (Chucholl, 2013) and in the Czech Republic (Patoka et al, 2014b(Patoka et al, , 2014c. Concerns as to their further spread are fully justified inasmuch as their occurrence is powerfully driven by propagule pressure relating to the pet trade (Chucholl, 2014, Faulkes, 2015a.…”

“…Although freshwater fishes comprise the core of this sector (Silas et al, 2011;Magalhães and Jacobi, 2013), freshwater crayfish have been recognized as constituting a significant part and their popularity has been increasing in recent decades (Chucholl, 2013). Unfortunately, negative consequences resulting from the release of New NICS into natural habitats are particularly apparent in Europe (Chucholl, 2013;Faulkes, 2015a;Patoka et al, 2015). These New NICS usually belong to the North American taxa, and individuals of pet trade origin also have been confirmed as infected by the crayfish plague pathogen (Kouba et al, 2014;Mrugała et al, 2015).…”