Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

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I have spent months building up a breeding program for common Yabbies..
I am still waiting for some Red-Claw to come my way..

I now have so many yabbies, and really cant house them all, (and more on the way) so if interested in adding some to your Sump-Tank, then PM me..

But don't expect to go home with a meal of them.. they are so tiny...
and warning... they don't deliver much personal interest... you never see them..
I am thinking of just adding them to all water beds.. and let the go for it..

Don't know if there is any issue with them in raft beds, where suspended roots might make a meal, AND they like to escape..

I was given ten to start with..
And in the confined aquarium, one-by-one they disappeared.. until there was three, now "friends with benefits"

If planning for yabbies in the sump, start with many hiding places.. bundles of different sized conduits scattered around..
At first, you might want a small aquarium, but understand they WILL start to eat each other..
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and as a curiosity, anyone have any advice on compatibility with fish species..
eg.. will Silver-Perch or Salmon or Trout eat small yabbies..

I could put some tube clusters in the FT, but they will allow solids to gather around them..
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Yabbies are a fun addition to AP but worthless in regards to grow out to harvest. All fish and yabbies will eat each other depending on size so its a gamble.


Heres my old fish tank with SP, trout and yabbies co-existing.





Ive been trapping and breeding yabbies for 15+ years and have ran AP/hard bottom tank stock density and grow out trials for 4 years. Yabbies in AP over long periods of time is difficult, not only due to canabilism but infection from unnatural hard bottom tanks and due to the acidic nature of developing AP systems which effects the exoskeleton.

But if your serious at having a crack this is the best info I can give you..

Firstly a couple of points to keep in mind.. yabbie growth rates rely heavily on temp, 20-28deg being optimal and below 16deg and they enter a state of reduced metobolic activity, basically hibernation. Obviously aeration at higher temps will improve DO levels and water quality.

Also make sure your PH levels dont become to acidic, this will soften the exoskeleton and promote disease therefore reducing activity. Try keep it above 7 - 7.5. Unfortunately this is not ideal for plants.

Although nutritional requirements of yabbies is relatively unknown, I like to stick to high protein diets like aquaculture pellets, marron pellets, potato and lupins. A few worms and snails now and then are also a good addition. Just keep an eye on left over food as you would already know. I think farmers feed at around 3% per body weight per day but I wouldn't fuss on that number for backyard AP.

To improve grow out results yabbies MUST be graded, there are a few ways to go about it. I wont go into them all but the system I use is relatively simple. For this you require 3 tanks. A juvenile tank, a breeding tank and a grow out tank. Tank size will depend on stock density.

The juvenile tank is the most important. It will be home to the babies and berried females. Females are removed about 2-3 weeks after brood. This needs a complex habitat, I use lots of hides with pipe cut offs (its a good idea to close one end) and a massive bunched up length of shade cloth or potato sack.

The breeding tank is home to 1 male per 3 females at a stock density of around 8-12 yabbies per 1m2 of floor space. Once again, hides are crucial. There will be carnage in this tank, its impossible to avoid. Move the males to the grow out tank regularly and eat the females after a couple of broods and replenish with young from the juvenile tank. Young females are good to go at around 20-30g.

The grow out tank is all male occupied, I stock this at around 30 per 1m2 of floor space. Also a haven for carnage but thats the way it goes... usually when they mault. Yabbies will grow faster in an all male situation and in fact research into mono-sexing and hybrid species is likely to intensify and increase production substantially over the next decade within the farming world.

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Wow - how good was that.. Thanks Charlie..

Now I am embarrassed to ask, but how do you pick the females and males..?

"Someone" told me the females have two holes and the males have pollopy things on certain legs..

Well there are three, in my breeding tank.. I remove the berried females to separate tanks and on immediately releasing the last egg, return her to the breeding tank...
Two larger/menacing ones and one half sized on..

The two bigger ones have had berries, so they must be females, but THEY are the ones who seem to "play around" and the little one seems to just keep out of the way..

PS - there was no photo..
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Hi BuiDoi,

I asked charlie and the good folks on this forum some what the same question way back viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14865, this is where he pointed me to, http://backyardfarming.com.au/phpbb3/vi ... d&start=15 hope it is informative.

Regards

Thanks for that.. I was looking for the holes in the wrong place.. I assumed towards the tail..

PS - With only two that are of size to compare, then I seem to have a big Male, smaller female (with berries) and a much smaller female..
The strange thing is that I would swear that the BIG one had berries first...
Only wish they were like lobsters with the females having the little fins to hold the eggs.. and males don't (I think)
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Found a better pic, here it is.

Regards

was thinking about those bio pods they use for growing out yabbies, was planning to grow some out in my SP tank in these when its up and running.
Anybody had any experience with these?

EDU not bio pod lol my bad

@slimjim - This might interest you, although it has been awhile might be informative, and if i remember correctly there is some talks about how inhumane it is some where in this forum. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7881

Regards

Battery farming and unsuccessful design and operation.

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I'm beginning to question my own memory..
I was sure the BIG one was the first to have berries.
the inbetween has had two lots, and the small one nothing..
Just inspected that BID and SMALL and both seem to be males, so how can I think the big one did have berries..
Can they change sex?

Clearly it is going to be a background "Extra" .. an adjunct to the normal BYAP system

I have the two sump tanks and thus two chances to separate.
I suspect that Sizing and Sexing will be just too much trouble and leave it to survival of the fittest..
After all, we are simply trying to cycle waste products..
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@BuiDoi - Just to clarify, you will be having a FT for breeding and 2 sump to separate males and females?

Regards

@BuiDoi - Can you please share your setup for your yabbies? Picture please.

Regards

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Yes, I do have a two level sump system (ATM)

To be frank, I had not planned on sexing them, but it is looking like that is a must if there is any hope of not ending with one very well fed Male..

I have something like 100 8>10mm babies in one small aquarium and a female with new berries in another aquarium..

I wonder how one will go trying to get this 100 plus to maturity.. ie - it won't be too long until they start eating each other, and I wonder how I will go at sexing them when under say 20mm long..

Likely my first task will be to haul all the hiding stuff from the upper sump and clarify the water and start catching the first releases and try sexing them..

Images of the setup are in the below thread..
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