Estimates of genetic parameters for growth-related traits of the red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii

In this study, technologies of family construction and grow-out culture in the same pond were studied for red swamp crayfish. A total of 77, 110 and 78 families were constructed in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. Heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations were estimated for body weight, body length and carapace length through performance testing in progeny of 2012 at 5 and 10 months of age, resulting from a nested mating design. At 5 months of age, none of the estimated heritabilities were significant (0) based on sire components (hs2) for these traits, the genotypic correlations, either; only the phenotypic correlations were significant (0.8561–0.9420). At 10 months of age, the estimated heritabilities (hs2) were low for the three traits (0.1429–0.1632); the phenotypic and genetic correlations were significant, 0.8148–0.9052 and 0.9981–0.9993, respectively. It was concluded that genetic improvement through selective breeding conducted on red swamp crayfish might be feasible and would be an efficient method to obtain a positive response to selection for the 10-month-old red swamp crayfish.