Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Holy shit - from the same link:

"How well do yabbies cope with low oxygen levels?

...At zero oxygen they can change their metabolism to a form which doesn't need oxygen..."

I love nature. What fascinatingly tough creatures.

Very cool Gemmel, pity the plants aren't as tolerant nice to know though... I never did have any trouble keeping yabbies, no matter how I abused them in my ignorance... this must be why.

Those creatures are a commensual (ummm they eat at the same place) life form. Yabbies usually do better with them on them. Yea I know they are ugly and all.... but they aint harmful as far as I know. Seen a lot of different types and several seem very host specific.
I don't eat my yabbies so its never phased me

so those things covering the yabbies are GOOD? I would never have believed that!
So what was causing his yabbies to die then...

I'm jumping to this thread a little late, but to summarise - Yes, they are Temnocephalid flatworms (great pic by the way lambs)... and yes I've had problems with these in the past on my marron and yabbies.

As Don mentioned, they are ectocommensal, living on the outside of the yabby and eating the scraps that the yabbies miss. You tend to have a lot of them if there is a lot of uneaten food in the water. They are not parasites, and only become a problem if there are so many of them that they impede the water flow over gills of the yabby.

An abundance of temno is usually an indicator of poor water quality or too much uneaten food in the system.

From the pic I couldn't see any epistylis, which looks more like a brown furry growth.

Treatment for both is the same, salt bath of 30g per litre for 3 minutes or 10g per litre for 30 mins.

I put my yabbies in a solution of about 200 grams in 3 litres for 30 minutes. Seem to have come out of it okay though.