This work presents general information about Astacidae family of crayfish (Crustace/Decapoda), who are protected by law in Croatia, and their diversity, morphology, biology and ecology. Special attention is given to Astacus astacus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet, 1858) who are included in the Red List of threatened species of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and successfully experimentally cultivated in „Croatian Centre for Local Fish and Crayfish of KarstWater – Otočac“ in Ličko Lešće on the Kostelka spring. In the year 2009, Centre has begun with the experimental cultivation of noble crayfish Astacus astacus resulting in established suitable conditions for life and reproduction of crayfish in water. The project „Cultivation and repopulation of the noble crayfish Astacus astacus and the white-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes“ began in 2012 with the aim just to analyse the noble crayfish but in the end the project resulted in reproduction of 1509 crayfish. The new project called „Optimization of accelerated cultivation of the noble crayfish larva Astacus astacus“ began in 2014. As the cultivation of the noble crayfish project showed good results, the new project of „Optimization of accelerated cultivation of the white-clawed crayfish larva Austropotamobius pallipes“ has been established in the fall of 2015 and also proved successful with the outcome of reproducing white-clawed crayfish in the spring of 2016 for the first time ever in the Centre.