YABBIE'S

erro · **Posted:** Thu Jan 03, 2013 1:19 am

Hi Charlie

I have a few questions;
How do I sex Yabbies?
I'm intending to put cut down IBC's under my growbeds to grow yabbies, what would be the minimum depth required for an IBC Yabbie tank?

Thanks Erro

erro · **Posted:** Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:10 pm

Hi Charlie

How do we sex Yabbies?
How deep must a cut down IBC yabby tank be? I want to put them under my AP grow beds

Thanks

Peasants · **Posted:** Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:17 pm

We have ours in a halved IBC, so they take about 500 litres............two in fact, one for the breeders and one for growing out. We keep the juveniles in the aquarium in the house!!

erro · **Posted:** Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:00 pm

Thanks Peasants ( not all of you!! He he he)

I'm not sure I can fit half an IBC under the GB, which is why I asked. Will the yabbies be able to climb out?

Regards

Faye · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:38 am

We kept some in a 30cm deep growbed successfully.

Peasants · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:11 pm

Agreed Faye, 30 cm is the deepest our water gets to when it is topped up, and is usually about 25 cm.

Erro, provided the water stays a few centimetres below the top of the container, and there is nothing for them to climb out on, they will stay put. We have a drain hole in the IBC about 10 cm from the top so the water never gets higher.

Peasants · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:27 pm

Here is a photo of our two yabbie IBCs, and some juveniles in the aquarium.

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Charlie · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:45 pm

Hi Erro

As others have mentioned there is no depth requirement. With the right conditions you can actually keep yabbies in a home made sand/dirt habitat. The only thing to keep in mind is temp fluctuations as obviously a small body of water is prone to swinging with the outside temps.

Just remember its good to keep plenty of hides like pipe off cuts and even scrunched up shade cloth etc in the tank for them to claim home.

Yabbies arent real good climbers unlike marron but it still pays to take some precaution. Try and keep things away from the sides and maybe even a mesh cover could be a good option. What are you thinking about using for a tank?

Determining the sex of your yabbies is easy. You need to check the underside of the yabby. Male yabbies have small projections on the inside base of the last walking pair of walking legs. The female yabbies are smooth on the back legs without any projections but have 2 round openings on the inside base of the third pair of legs, they are hard to discern but these are the openings from which the females will lay her eggs under her tail.

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erro · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:51 pm

Initially I was going to put tanks under the new GB I'm building, then drop the water from the GB straight into it and then an over flow from the yabbie tank into the pipe manifold and back to the Fish tank. I still may do this but it is questionable whether or not I have the room. So well see how we go.

Then when I add further GB's, I'm planning 12 more, I will now plan to do a 1/2 IBC GB top and 1/2 IBC Yabby tank below it instead of the initial plan of a frame with 1/2 IBC's along it like I have already with the round GB's I'm using.

This way I can have 12 yabby tanks with 30 per tank thats 360 yabbies.

New question

How long will it take to grow a yabbie from egg to dinner plate if I want 75mm long yabbies? Charlie?

Bugger now I'm hungery just thinking about it!!

erro · **Posted:** Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:55 pm

Another Question

Brood stock of Yabbies, Can i just catch Yabbies from mates farm dam and start with them?

A few years ago I fished some Yabbies from a sorm water dam in my surburb, it was/is boundered by a major road, a the Roe hwy and a minor rd along a shopping centre. Know one ever believes me when i tell them where i caught yabbies from is suburbia.

Charlie · **Posted:** Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:41 pm

erro wrote:

This way I can have 12 yabby tanks with 30 per tank thats 360 yabbies.

30 per tank is manageable if you know what your doing but Id follow my grow out guidelines on the previous page if you want to get to this point.

erro wrote:

How long will it take to grow a yabbie from egg to dinner plate if I want 75mm long yabbies? Charlie?

As Ive previously mentioned, growth rates are dependant on temperature and stock density. If you stocked 30 yabbies of different sizes and sexes in the same FT, not only will you have carnage but they will not grow to their full potential. You need to find the balance... the balance is what I have posted on the previous page.

Having said that, in a correctly stocked tank with substantial hides and perfect temperatures (23-28deg) you will see approx 2.5g weight increase per month within the first year. Once females are mature enough to spawn their weight gain reduces and difficult to measure from that point. Males on the other hand continue to gain (if stocked correctly) and you should see them get to about 7cm in about 10 months and approx 30g. It will take a male to get to about 20cm (80-100g) in 2.5 years and max out at 350g in 4 odd years.

erro wrote:

Brood stock of Yabbies, Can i just catch Yabbies from mates farm dam and start with them?

Absolutely, free ones are the best kind. The most important thing here though is to quarantine and salt bath them for 2 hours at 10-12ppt to remove any parasites or nasties that might infest your entire system and disease your fish.

:thumb:

rickh7 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:43 pm

you call them yabbies. in the United States, they are called crayfish, crawdads, bugs and other names.

You are talking about grading them. Can you grow enough Yabbies to be commercially available?

Schalk · **Posted:** Mon Dec 01, 2014 8:12 pm

Charlie wrote:

I have had a fair bit to do with yabbies over the past 15 odd years, from trapping to breeding, recipe idea's and home farming.

Ive learnt a lot and read a lot in that time and was lucky enough to have a very resourceful father at a young age in relation to all thing yabbie and daming.

Yabbies are an interesting creature and their instinctual habits amaze me... even after all this time.

I currently own a number of yab's that I breed, examine and experiment with (not on) and record everything in a journal Ive had for about 4 years now. Ive consulted local land owners and we have some excellent results over the years.

I currently am writing a cookbook which hopefully will be released next year some time.

If anyone has questions or queries about yabbies, gilgies, koonacs or marron feel free to ask.

If your interested in some of my trapping adventures, check me out here

Hi charlie

Im in south africa and would love to start breeding marron . But can find a good source for building my tank

What pumps/ filters / size of tank / . Ph test kits /water temp
do i need

Thanx

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

aquablue · **Posted:** Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:39 pm

Hello my name is corey :wave:

I am living in the USA, Florida and have a question. Is it possible to get Yabbie's or the blue marron's here. I have searched and am unable to find a supplier. I have searched to see if it would be legal and have found nothing. I am currently Growing Tilapia and Koi in my Aquaponics system and thought it would be good to add some crustaceans to the mix. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Peasants · **Posted:** Wed Mar 16, 2016 9:07 pm

Hi Corey,
Sorry, no idea if you can get them over there, but I am not sure having them in the same tank is very successful.......someone may have more info!

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YABBIE'S

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