Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all new here and I am currently designing my first system for home with a view to learning enough to set up a successful system at school next year. Fish tank will be a cubic metre bulker tank and I plan on putting in some kind of fish along with the crustaceons (any suggections would be helpful).

I have done the searches and read the huge amount of opinions and various information on the above four species but can't find anywhere where one person has tried the different types and can comment on more than one. I have included Gilgies as I have a creek running across the front of my block and there are gilgies in it. I don't really want to fish out the creek just to stock my tank but thought I would catch one just to check they were not yabbies and they are not. It could be possible to stock the tank over time though from the creek, if gilgies are the best option. On the other hand I want to make sure I don't allow escapee yabbies into the creek. I have attched a picture of my mate from the creek if anyone wants to confirm my identification for me it would be appreciated.

So who has tried more than just one of these, which one did you end up keeping and why?

Thanks,
Mike

Nothing to say that you couldn't re-stock the creek later on...

Sorry, can't really help Burnsy... still on the learning curve with yabbies, although I would like to (and plan to) get some marron soon...

That is true but I want to use them for eating as well as a nutrient source and I think Gilgies are the smallest of the four so probably the lowest production.

Thanks for the link Sleepe, that is what I used to ID it as a gilgie, just wanted to see if anyone else agreed.

No worries, mine are a lot darker than that.
At least with Gilgies you have a native of the area (and they taste good)

it actually looks like a small marron, all 3 will not live together, is your tank a metre square at bottom? if so marron aren't the go and koonacs would be as grow smaller and so more fit in tank, aggressive buggers though and will kill for territory, marron in a tank that size about 4 with hides, yabbies maybe 8 but they are aggressive as well, koonacs will handle overcrowding if well fed but need to keep koonacs out of creek as will kill the marron/gilgies

you might find your information on this forum, Nocky:
http://www.crayfishmates.com
the owner of the forum, Crusty, is an extremely helpful person
if you post your picture there, someone will identify your species

frank

hay Burnsy, i live down the hill from you in Maida Vale but i did a lot of my growing up in Lesmurdie and spent a lot of time catching Gilgies and Marron, i have played around with all but Koonacs and i would have to say that Yabbies are the better in my experiance, you can loose a lot to canabilisum but they breed very easily and grow quick and you can grow them to around 150 grms, one trick is to use shade cloth hides that stand the hight of your water column and feed them a little more than you think they need, they can handle a little bit of muck as you would know they do well in murky farm dams, i did say a little bit of muck as in a little bit of exsess food on the bottom of a tank gives them somthing to forage through, i actuly have marron gilgies and yabbies at the moment and i have lost quite a few marron just over the past few weeks because i haven't increesed there feed asthe water has warmed up, yabbies will handle the warm weather better than marron to and gilgies grow very slowly, i would say yabbies and silver perch would be the way to go.
good luck with what ever you choose.

Burnsy by the way that is definetly a gilgie in the photo.

if you have any trouble geting Yabbies i can get you some,if you decide you want some

Thanks Grunta, I think yabbies are what I will be chasing so may call on you in a few weeks once I get organised.

I also grew up in Lesmurdie, class of 88 graduate from Lesmurdie High. It was quite funny sitting on the bank of the same creek exactly as I did about 25 years ago with a lump of meat on a string catching a gilgie !!