# Keeping Crawfish Alive?



## GMTK (Sep 8, 2008)

I used a bunch of the different recipes found on 2cool this past Friday to boil some crawfish. We ended up having about 10 lbs uncooked left over, and I was going to save them for Saturday while I watched Tony Stewart win the All-Star challenge. Not knowing how to leave them, I trusted my neighbor (but both our judgment was impaired thanks to Bud Lt, Bud Select and Makers Mark). Well, I left the craws in a cooler with about 2 inches of water covering them. Bad move, lost 90% of them.

So 2cool experts, if I were to keep some crawfish overnight, what should I do with them?


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## Chuck (May 21, 2004)

Just keep them moist..but not in water and with some fresh air to breath.
Overnight you can just lay the sack in the back yard and cover it with a wet towel unless it is real hot. Or in a cooler with the drain plug removed and a bag of ice on top. Keep the lid cracked for ventilation.


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## saltwatersensations (Aug 30, 2004)

leave them in the sack. put them in the cooler put ice on them (not a whole lot) and prop the cooler up so that the water drains out. You want to keep them cool but dont want to let them sit in the cold water.


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## Roger (Aug 12, 2005)

I've never tried to keep 'em alive for a week but this has worked for several days. I used to bring a sack or two back to Texas and Oklahoma each spring for a family crawfish boil back in the 80's and it works real well. 

Take a large ice chest and line the bottom with several bath towels (they soak up water real well) and line the bottom of the chest. Then spread your crawfish out and then more towels on top of the crawfish. Then fill the rest of the ice chest with ice. As the ice melts it will work its way down to the bottom. The crawfish sort of go into hibernation. It works. Just remember to keep the water drained off or they'll die.

When you get ready to boil'em take the ice and towels off the top and watch 'em come alive when that warm air hits 'wm.


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## GMTK (Sep 8, 2008)

Thanks for the tips, hopefully next time I can finish them off in the first sitting......


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## Harbormaster (May 26, 2000)

Leave 'em in the sack, place them on a grassy area in the shade and spray them down with a water hose every few hours!

If you leave them in an ice chest with the lid closed they suffocate!


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## mdmerlin (Oct 10, 2006)

I put the leftover bag of ice in the bottom, covered it with 2 towels, put the mudbugs on top of that and wet 'em down. Notice I said wet, they will drown if you put too much water in.

They stayed alive for 2 days and we finished 'em off on the range in the house, just cooking what we needed for the two of us. Batch here and a batch there, real tasty!!


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## berto (Oct 14, 2004)

saltwatersensations said:


> leave them in the sack. put them in the cooler put ice on them (not a whole lot) and prop the cooler up so that the water drains out. You want to keep them cool but dont want to let them sit in the cold water.


ive done this also. kept them good for 3 days.


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## SwampRat (Jul 30, 2004)

Next time, just bring 'em by my place...I'll make sure they have a nice comfy evening and a long nap.

SR!


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## hardcore (May 31, 2005)

put them in the bath tub... keep the drain open..sprinkle some ice on them

wear boots when showering..coonazzes style


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## KillaHookset (Jan 6, 2005)

We used to do a weekend long boil, get the 400-800 pounds of crawfish in Thurs afternoon and stack the bags in an empty kiddie pool in the garage with a drain hole cut. Placed a few bags of ice on top of the sacks, and then layered tarps over the entire pile. Replace ice as it melted. Kept them alive for several days this way. 
As the pile shrunk we xfered the sacks on coolers that raised on one end with the drain plug removed and a bag of ice.
Direct contact with ice seems to not do any damage but we sometimes put a layer of cardboard/towels or newspaper down between the ice and bugs


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## energinerbuzzy (Oct 28, 2008)

I second the kiddy pool. That's how we purge ours and then keep them till ready for em. I have successfully kept a couple of hundred pounds of them for a week buy just wtering them once a day, keep them in the shade, a little ice to keep things cool, and let em run free and wild and able to stick their heads out of the water.

Kidie pools work great and are dirt cheap and wally world.


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## MissingSTexas (Oct 3, 2007)

Just buy more beer and call a few more buddies over! But seriously, we used to bring to rockport back from Morgan City in the 80's in the back of a pickup in the sack with a burlap (think oyster) sack about a third full of ice on top of each one... Ice makes them slow way down. Some very good points about drowning, sufficating, and getting too hot.


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