Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I remember when I was really young catching Marron the size of my arm.
Even now we catch marron half the size of my arm.

I think these guys take about 8 or more years to reach sexual maturity so they are no good as a commercial venture but you could have them at home (you're going to get pretty hungry waiting for a feed though). I used to catch the gippsland version of these as a kid and they are delicious.
Marron (and queensland red claw) are not permitted in victoria- they are declared noxious species so it is an offence to be in possession of them.
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nreninf.n ... CA389?open

Everyones arms shrink as they get older

Given that they're such good escape artists, anybody smuggling them across the border should think about their moral obligations and the chance that marron could enter our waterways.

My 2c.
I wouldn't do it. Probably wouldn't be against having Koi or other noxious fish, cos it's so much harder for them to escape.

As far as the Murray crays go, I asked around some time back, and most fisheries told me that they're too hard or just impossible to breed in captivity
I'm not sure how much I believe this, but they're certainly not commercially available.
I'd love some1 to try (and succeed)

UMMM,,,any redclaw that escaped into beautiful sunny-warm (ROFMAO)Victoria, would surely die from lack of warm sunny conditions.
Never the less,I agree people should not be breaking the law.

OK Chappo, in that case it begs the question... Why are they 'A noxious Species' or at the very least banned in Vic, if they'd die upon release... It makes no sense... if true, we should start a petition to have them legalised or something.

I doubt these animals are going to die immediately on release, so there is the issue of the damage they might do/cause while waiting for them to kark it

Marron carry a virus that if it gets into the Murray or Gippsland cray that will be the end of them.
That is the reason that they are banned in Victoria.

Murray crays will not live together they kill any cray in their area and only get together for breeding. They do grow very big. They taste very much like a yabbie. The difference being that it takes a 12 good yabbies to make a meal for one person and one Murray cray will satisfy most people. It is so long since I have eaten one that I am testing the memory a bit.

They are slow growing. In other words they are not suitable for aquaculture.
Alex

Hey there.

my 2 bobs worth....

saw at the start of this thread some photos from David Royal, who admins the excellent www.crayfishworld.com website. well worth a look for the crayfish lovers.

Murray crays are a member of the spiny crayfish, or Euasticus family.
There are variants on these spiny crays in almost every stream on the eastern side of the great divide from Vic- to Qld.
Many of these grow to Lobster like size, but the downside is, that one that size is likely to be 30years+ old, so its a shame to consume them, as delicious as they may be.
Most spinies, as prev posters mentioned, are extremely slow growing ( 5 years + just to get to a decent edible cherax/blue yabby size )- so no go commercially really.

Also, highly, highly aggressive ( bitterly learned from personal experience ) and will fight to death if placed in tanks together, so quite hard to breed in captivity...water requiremnts aside....

SOme gorgeous colour variants though,among various locations, and absolutely fascinating pets if you can get a big enough aquarioum to keep one in ( remember they are like a bulldozer tho- and put a bessa block on your tank lid!) . I am looking at trying to manufacture a simulated creek system down the back of my place using a zillion bathtubs to see if a few of the local variety might live and breed there...we shall see...

They like to eat the algae that grows on old logs, and their dietary habits are still somewhat of a mystery, tho generally considered to be omnivorous...

I'll start a thread on them once i get the baths dug in and set up, and we'll see how they go...

cheers

D

btw, if anyone really keen on the spinies, my friend Rob has just put out this book on all the nsw spinies.

im not able to spare the $95 yet to get it ( fair enough, 138 page full colour pics and a few years hard work trapsing thru scrub.) but am very keen to get it.

any interested parties can check it out here http://www.aabio.com.au/index.html
theres some pretty pics form the book on the first page.

cheerz

D

Is that Rob McCormack... what that guy doesn't know about yabbies and other crustacea... probably hasn't been written...

Will have to have a look at the book....

Is Rob still farming his yabbies... had heard he'd all but close down????

Hey Rupe.
yep thats him

yeah his new book looks awesome.

he sold crayhaven farm a few years back, new owners ..well who knows but they arent open to public anymore at least....

you can contact him via site.

hope to catch up sometime.

cheers
D

Marron have a very tasty virus is all I can say, and the Vics worried about viruses obviously only in fish and not swine

Hi everyone,

every year I go cray fishin, it's a bit of a winter tradition for us.

We rarely keep them now as they have been hit hard by poachers using drum nets.

We still like to catch them and then let them go. It's about the camping, river and being out there for us.

They are very slow growing and I cannot bring myself to eat them nowdays.

The spiny freshwater cray can grow very big and are impressive to see, but they are few and far between.

They don't like warm water and would die quickly in a ap system come summer.

A cray of LEGAL SIZE does not have much meat on them. A small amount in the tail and the claws.

Most of the cray is the carapace[head] section which contains organs etc.

As crays will kill each other unless breeding their armour is a majority of their bulk.

They are not a good candidate for farming and this is why no one is doing it.

Yabbies are a much better option for eating and captivity.

God bless froggo.

Totally agree Froggo.

what takes 5 years in size growth for a spiny, for a stubby little tail and LOTS of razor sharp spines to deal with = 18 months for a yabby ( sometimes less in optimal conditions )

and yabbys are ultra prolific.

myself have never been able to bring myself to eat one, always just stoked to pull one up and marvel at these pre-historic little monsters and put em back...
yabbies however...hehehe

if you are a spiny lover you gotta have a look at my mate Robs site/book...very very cool project.
http://www.aabio.com.au/index.html

cheers

D