Farming in His Genes

Six-year-old Tripp Leonards raising his own crawfish

Tripp Leonards is a 6 year old, 5th generation crawfish farmer from Lafayette, Louisiana.

​On his 6th birthday, he received a new aquarium as he wanted some pet fish. After a month of difficulty in keeping the fish alive, Tripp decided that he wanted to convert his aquarium into a crawfish farm. So he started raising crawfish in February of 2022, when he caught some to keep as pets from his uncle Nick’s pond in Crowley, La. He consulted with his uncle on how to care and provide for the crawfish and has maintained a thriving crawfish habitat ever since. 

The initial crawfish were one young male and one young female. The male did not make it long, and he was down to just the one female until March when his uncle Nick surprised him with a big blue male crawfish. Tripp was thrilled, even though his favorite color is orange, and he told his uncle to find him an orange crawfish. 

In April, Tripp demonstrated to his Kindergarten classmates how to catch crawfish during his class talent show. He told his parents that he was a talented crawfisherman, and that is what he should show his class. All of his classmates told him he had the best display, except for one kid who said the magician was the best. 

While setting up his aquarium farm, Tripp had bought a little cave for his crawfish to live in. The female crawfish had been spending a lot of time in the cave. He had assumed she was scared off by the large blue crawfish. However, unbeknownst to Tripp, the female had laid eggs in the cave, and one day he was surprised to see baby crawfish swimming around the tank. Tripp was very proud to watch his crawfish have babies. 

Over the last couple of months, he feeds them every day, maintains good water quality and aeration, and even takes them out to play with them every now and then.

Recently, Tripp was surprised again by his baby crawfish, as it seems they have taken on a trait from their father. All four of the young crawfish are blue. Tripp and his dad did some research and it seemed as though blue crawfish was random mutation, though Tripp now concludes that it is hereditary. He's having a lot of fun watching his little blue crawfish get big, although he's still hoping one will turn orange.