Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I was given some yabbies a week and a half ago. Two adults (Mum and Dad) and one largish one and a small one.
They had lived together in a small tank, with no filter. So I moved them into a 3ft (fairly wide) tank, which is 3 times the size of the one they were in, with a modest filter.
They have lots of places to hide and Friday I saw that Mum is carrying eggs. Her and Dad live in the same house, not sure if this is normal for yabbies, but apparently they always have.

I am setting up a small nutrient film thingy as a test until I get used to the whole thing properly. Shouldn't take too long, I have a hort diploma, one module of which was on hydro and aquaponics, used to look after fish for a living, and used to sell aquarium plants on ebay as they did so well in my tanks.

So anyway, I am planning on taking Mum out next weekend and putting her in a nursery tank until all the babies are off, and then leaving them away from the adults.
When she goes back I was planning on moving the tank around, but hopefully she will still get on with her boy.

Does this sound like the right course of action to try to keep as many babies as possible?

And one more question, if I put snails in to eat the algae forming on the glass (the tank is outside) are any likely to suvive? Actually, I suppose it could be a good source of protein without having to worry about rotting food............ What are people's experiances?

Any tips on yabbies, or a nutrient film system in general would be wonderful. Thanks

snails will find there way to your tank in a few months any way
on the seperation i dont know sorry

Definatly take mum out when babies seperate....else they'll be dinner and if there are loads of them they will eventually start eating each other....(natural selection/survival of the fittest)

The yabbies would probably eat the snails when introduced but give it a shot

just a thought, get a sponge filter and seed it on the AP before you put mum in a separate tank, then youll have a filter for the babies to maintain water quality