Cajun Crawfish Pie
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What Do Crawfish Eat?
Anything they can find. That's the answer to the question of what do crawfish eat. Should I add to this? I guess so. It wouldn't be much of a story without a little filling, now would it?
In all seriousness, our little appetizers will eat anything that they possibly can. If you give them something that is digestible, they will eat it. I will assure you that if you left your hand in a crawfish pond long enough, you would be pulling out a stump in a day or so. If they can stick it in their mouth, they will try to eat it. Most interesting to me is the fact that they will eat each other if the opportunity is right. That's the main reason that they go to so much trouble to hide when they are moulting. Their bodies are soft and they just know that their brothers will start snacking on him if they find him! I told you that crawfish are smart!
In their natural environment, crawfish mainly live off of decomposing plant matter. They love to eat grass and other plants that are rotting in the water, as long as they are soft enough to rip into with their claws. That's one reason that crawfish do so well in ponds that are emptied and then flooded for them. All of the plants that are growing when the pond is empty become decomposing food when it is flooded. I told you that Cajuns are smart too!
Our funny friends also like to eat strange things such as algae and snails. No, they didn't learn to do this from the French. In fact, I do believe that the French learned it from the crawfish! It actually turns out that most swampy environments that crawfish thrive in have a lot of algae growing in them due to the warm climate. This makes a perfect snack for crayfish (that stupid Yankee name for them again). These waters are also full of a lot of snails, and they have no chance once a crawfish has zoned in on them. Of course our friends will also grab the passing insect that falls into the water, and they love to find a dead fish that has given its life for them They love fish so much that most crawfish farmers use this as their exclusive bait.