Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Question i am thinking of using yabbies instead of fish for my aquaponics will it work or am i dreaming

No reason it wont work.... just that comparatively they'll provide less waste.... less ammonia... less nutrients .... to a system than fish.

You wont be continually feeding them high protein feeds as you would with fish.

Of course you can balance that by matching your stocking levels to the size of your tank etc.

You might consider polyculture of crayfish and fish: it would give you some of each, more intensive use of the space, more nutrients for the veggies, and the yabbies can eat some feed leftovers.

Hydro

Was an interesting article (long time ago) re polyculture from the US where they were growing Macrobracium Rosenbergii at the top of the tank seperated by a screen from the bottom, where they were growing Perch.
Then through beds of Corbicul? (stuff it Clams) as filter feeders then onto vegie beds.

Probably do it the opposite way round with Yabbies (destructive little B**gers) but tend to go dormant in winter.

Hmmm....and grind up the excess clams as feed for the perch and prawns! Sweet! Thanks, S!

No worries

Think they did that Hydro. From memory they also grew water hyacinth? on the top of the tank to provide hiding places and food for the macrobracium (they are territorial like yabbies)

all these answers are great thanks all so because yabbies give of much less ammonia... less nutrients this means i made need a lot more of them in the tank but as they are territorial i don't want them all to fight and kill each other and i dont have the room for a huge tank it sound like a balancing act to me between the number of yabbies to size of grow bed

I have a design for a yabbie tank, for maximum density: I'll try and do a sketch up and post it later.

KP

Hope its like a prison cos the're great escape artists .

Sleepe, I have much experience with yabbies in aquariums. And yes it's like a prison :-) Metal bars and all

we have found that trimming the lower claw pincers on our yabbies changes there attitude imediately. cruel to be kind. it works better then watching them kill each other slowly and another plus is that higher stocking levels is possible. we have noticed that they are still able to forage and eat really well so they are not missing out. they have even mated.

Ray can you post a description (or drawing, photo) of how you trim the lower claws... might be helpful for others

i use a pair of loose pliers, and i crush the thumb portion of the claw. this may sound very cruel but life for them seems to be a lot less agressive. i currently stock approx 30 in about 40lts with 14 two inch tube shelters. so i often find 2 or 3 sharing a tube. they eat a lot of food so it doesnt seem to interfere too much. all in all they seem happy.

What do you feed them Ray? And how do you deal with water quality issues (if any)... do you supply any oxygenation?

i feed them a variety of things for example tonight i have tried, tomato pieces, corn husk and some overripe sweet corn kernals. other things i have tried are frozen fig, peach, mango, lettuce, apple cucumber, they love zuchini, red grape, crushed worms, rose petals, and baby rose leaves, basically any sort of vege or fruit. freezing makes things easy to grate with a cheese grater. i am running a pump to gravel bed with a dodgy auto syphon back to the tank and that is it.