Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

In brief, I have 2 FTs joined by stormwater pipe on the one AP system. I have recently killed most of my fish due to the great cooking salt effup of 2014.

Left with a nearly clean slate I'm restocking one tank with trout and thinking of stocking the other with yabbies to sell at a farmers market live.

Each tank is 4500L and if I make lots and lots of hidey holes using plant tube stock pots stuck together with something inert, what numbers do we reckon I could possibly keep in the one tank?

Was thinking how awesome it would be to be able to feed with the outer leaves of produce etc. bit like a worm farm but more tasty

Unfortunately yabbies/marron and other freshwater crayfish are not highly successful in aquaponics. You can't stock in high numbers as they are very territorial and will kill each other. There is also a tendency to develop sores from the plastic bottom of the tank. Even with many hides etc you will barely have enough in the tank to feed yourself let alone have extras to sell. A commercial scale operation requires dams and ponds on a large scale


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So what yr telling me is there's no such thing as a free lunch?

Bugger. I was really getting excited about that too.

I'm thinking out loud, but what about masses of stacked cages above each other inside the tank?

just grow tout colours - you had success with them - and run minimal perch and charlie carp in summer - just relax into the seasonal changes.

That was my plan columnnn. I just need more nitrates in summer and having a cash crop would be great. I'd like to contribute to our farmers market also with something out of the ordinary. I would be routinely removing them for sale and I could return the little ones that don't get sold.

The silver perch (before their fate) didn't achieve much growth. The trout are stunning but being left with minimal nitrates in summer during peak growing season was less than optimal. But then I did have a potassium deficiency. I guess I just love eating yabbies and was excited about their easiness of sale because you can sell them live.

And they eat green waste.

You can't even keep your perch alive, how about step back and learn some basic fish keeping before you advance into anything more. Seriously you are bugging some seasoned members with your care free attitude.

And NO I don't think you should do anything with yabbies on any level what so ever especially commercial! Do you even know what laws and quarantine laws apy for catching and supplying yabbies? Wake up to your self.

Charlie that's a little harsh. If you knew me you would know how upset I was about the whole thing. The salt disaster was a culmination of crap that I'm dealing with in my life, busy with 3 kids, mums recently moved in, I work and run a business. Life is busy and on that day I made a mistake.

After having made a mistake I took to the forum, fessed up, embarrassed myself in the hope that someone out there would learn from my mistakes.

I've installed a couple of systems now, including one at the local primary school. I do my best but I will never be an expert. So sorry if I've offended anyone, maybe you can just skip through my posts?

I've felt very welcome on the forum so far...

Can we maybe manage this on a less personal attack type level? I had a brilliant idea today about yabbies. Did a search on the forum, got 273 entries, read for around 45 mins about having them in the sump (which I don't have) so thought i'd ask a simple question. I didn't even argue with anyone. And can't you buy them from fisheries? I was t planning on exhausting some pristine ecosystem. I briefly looked some up in sydney, they supply them as fishing bait.

Geez, forget it, sorry I asked. And I was hoping you would reply cause I saw you were the yabby expert. Now I'm sorry you did.

Also, who else am I bugging because I should probably apologise to them also.

Hey, there.

where would you get yabbies from - I would like to try some also for the novelty of them living in uninhabited sumps.

Your use of salt was a mistake like my use of hydrated lime - obviously we learn from our mistakes - like the time I flicked the voltage switch on my 90's computer from 'aussie' to 'US' - yeah that was stupid but I thought it would make it go faster...

Colours I have no problem with you making a mistake, I'm not perfect either. And to put things in perspective I've got kids with all the bells and whistles too so don't give me that card. Mate, quite simply your not ready to push your fish keeping skills so don't bite off more than you can chew... Easy really.

Thanks jayendra, I was actually very upset about all that, glad I'm not the only one neve to make a mistake.

As for advising you on where to get yabbies. Give google a go, I'm too scared to offer advice in case I get my head bitten off. I simply typed yabbies for sale sydney. Pretty innocently..,

So listen to the advice that others give you on the yabbies i.e. Charlie obviously knows his shiz and has probably had too many beers tonight
but there is always a good from a bad.
I think your idea is okay but the title 'commercial scale' doesn't seem to fit well with your setup?