Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Can people post some details as to how many marron they have successfully grown out in what size tank, what the ratio of males to females was and whether they reproduced please?

I put two (less than 100mm long) into my home tank on Friday and am looking to get some larger ones tomorrow for the school tank to help scavange the excess food and algae off the bottom. Don't particually want deaths at school so would like to know what others have found to be successful. I was thinking six around 150mm or larger with four being females and two males.

Cheers,
Mike

You need to have gravel or river sand/mud!
and it takes about 4 years from juvenile.

Not in any hurry to grow them out, just don't want yabbies and I am happy to throw some gravel on the bottom if need be. The school tank already has two really nice hollow log hides I put in a month ago that are now saturated and covered in a nice film of algae Just need a few extra pipe hides.

Maybe I could do gravel on the bottom at home and no gravel at school and see if there is a difference.

Just a warning if you put gravel on the bottom of your tank make sure it can't get into your pump!

Yep, gravel at home where pump is in a cage

Burnsy marron are very finicky to grow, they have to have everything right, in a 3000lt tank I would say 8 max, one male to 7 females will be fine, make sure the male is bigger as it needs to roll the female over (just like in human life )
50mm pvc pipe about a 8 - 12" long will make a good hide for 1, I wouldn't have 2 males as they will fight, separate male when you see eggs as being a male he just wants to keep mating and will knock the eggs off, if you don't want to see deaths at school, then seriously I wouldn't grow marron, they are the kings of escape and will climb cables, plumbing, wire and will try anything to get out of the tank if not happy, and generally they are not happy in a tank, one change in the water pisses them off, we regularly see them walking across paddocks leaving a dam to find another, this actually makes them far easier to catch, and end up in water of a hotter variety you will find that if you have barramundi in summer the marron will eat the fingerlings and eventually the barra will eat the marron, another thing about marron is they are not big eaters, they eat about 1 pellet every fortnight so for cleaning up your tank, they are not the answer either, hope this helps, we grow them in a dam also, and they are hard enough to grow there, marron and a tank are not the best combination

Mmmmm.....you cauld try sommit different for a change.

Thanks for the advice Nocky but it is to late. I bought four marron today (about 150 grams each) and threw them in the school tank. They seemed happy enough when I left them - it was a much nicer environment than where they came from and they found the timber hides straight away. Not sure on sex as I was in a hurry so did not have time to look and I was advised by the guys selling them it would make to difference to their living together.

They look cool cruising around the bottom of the tank. Having a bit of a guess as to how long it will take the kids to notice them as I am keeping it on the quiet.

thats the other problem burnsy, keeping them quiet, as soon as people know about marron, they seem to disappear, the shop guy is right about they will live together, until mating time, 4 Marron you should have 1 male, if no male then buy a male, but burnsy I am the king of trial and error with marron, mostly error or failure, Marron prefer a PH closer to 8, remember they eat around 1 x 5mm pellet each a fortnight, serious, I suffered failure from over feeding, don't rely on 4 to eat all undigested food, check regularly to see they are alive in hides, nothing like a dead marron to spike the Ammonia, (been There as well found marron after who knows how long but didn't smell nice and took ages to get ammonia down ) but you will smell something different in the water if this happens, in the dam we feed lupins about once a month, but nothing else, but you will need to feed them nothing at all, they live on fish crap as well,, they don't float when they die, if you get passed a month with them you will probably succeed, if no dramatic changes in water, test weekly or more and be prepared to change some water, they won't tolerate chlorine

Thanks Nocky, our pH is 7.6 so that should be alright, any would be poachers who manage to get them through the 100x100 mesh probably deserve them

I was noticing a bit of feed build up on the bottom but after three days of no feeding last weekend it was all gone so it seems starving the trout over the weekends keeps the waste minimal. I will take you advice and try and find them all at least once a week, also will catch them and sex them if they last the month out.

Chlorine might be a problem with water changes but we will see, if they survive I will be sure to let everyone know. They are worth having at school just because they are such cool beasts and so big compared to the gilgies I have in the class so I am hoping that we can keep a couple alive.

And they taste much nicer

The marron farmer I spoke to said you will have more trouble with escapees with the adult marron, as opposed to the juveniles.

He has dams and tanks, and said the juvies settle into a new tank quite well, but the adults will go looking for a way back to their old water course.

A friend of mine bought some adults, and 1 week later, ran over one in his driveway

The breeder also said putting them in the FT would supply a good source of food when they breed for the fish, (I thought bugger that, I want them ).

Timely thread for me, I intend to put some marron in one of my new sump tanks once my greenhouse cover goes on.

Nocky, did you use blue metal for the gravel tank base cover?

Yes I did NF but find the 12mm stuff better as 7mm tends to move around a bit, blue metal is suppose to support bacteria better, can't argue with that, I have a few mates in the Marron dept, one who has several dams a couple of which are dedicated to Blue Marron (still taste the same ) but all have trouble keeping them in, I agree that Juv's adapt better but will still want to go when the get bigger, we have one mates dam that has been a good source, never over fished and not prone to poaching, we can only find fingerlings at the moment we suspect the biggies have walked, the dam is shaped to a point that goes to a depth of 30 feet, dam has lots of tyres for hides and also to prevent dragging by poachers, dam is near his house and has dog protection.
I had to put heavy square aviary wire over my tank to keep them in, they are territorial and like around 1 square metre of space which most tanks would mean probably a max of 2 or 3, I had 8 and they did anything to escape, very handy climbers in or out of water, believe me when I say one small change in the water will piss them off, they don't seem to fight but if successful of breeding in tank, they will eat the young so you need floating hides like shade cloth scrunched up, or by them proper made, problem after breeding is what to do with the Juv's as you instantly have an over stocking problem and with your adult size marron already in tank, they will eat the small ones, so you then need to thin them out and eat the biggies, and wait 3 years for the others to grow, really I think they are to much hassle for ap, yabbies are aggressive but eat heaps and grow faster, but at the end of the day you don't know until you try it, I have several times

Agreed Nock,
But there are multi level habitats
... a bit like a multi level carpark