Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That was my belief as well but for the whole of yesterday the water level was in easy reach of the mesh and he just sat there practically touching the mesh with his head. Maybe the fact that the Principal was standing there with a cooking pot made him change his mind

Excellent Pic, I never knew (nor do I know anything about ) marron climbed out of there enviroment.

No wonder they are escape artist...I always just presumed they where looking for more territory

Yabbies and Red Claw will climb anything available... and make off across the countryside... especially if overcrowded, and/or your water quality is bad...

Can't tick either of those boxes at the moment.

Think Marron might be a bit different in that regard Burnsey... even C1's Marron like to sun themselves on occassion..

I would suggest not overcrowding as you only have 4, thats if the other 3 are about, but Mike it's highly unusual for marron to sun them self, they make themselves bird food, in natural environment they do there best to hide and only come out to feed at night, it is looking for a way out, or already dead but I have study marron in dams, tanks and plates and whilst have NFI about much, marron I do
**EDIT**Really Rupe I'm shocked, have never seen them sun only if escaping

I have written many times Marron have to have everything perfect, prima donna's of the fish world, they, in a real world would never leave themselves so exposed to predators

Just going by pics C1 has posted of his Marron doing a similar thing Nocky...

Never tried Marron myself....was going to... and will... yabbies are morons...

I have seen the pic's rupe and I think the same would be the case with Ivan's just something they don't like about the water, I have seen hundreds walking across a paddock all leaving a dam at the same time, but this is the only time they come out of the water, to change house, in natural environment anyhow, they don't like tanks or ponds much at all in my opinion anyhow, this guy http://www.truebluemarron.com.au/ grows thousands of blue and brown marron, he actually gave me the blues that I posted pic's of last year, he is my main source of marron info and is the reason why I stand defeated with growing marron in AP, he said it wouldn't work as conditions in AP are to variable, I think I would have more success with new set up, but basically not worth *frack* ing with.
Yabbies are total morons but are easiest to grow and their fights are spectacular at times, they also play soccer with the mussels when they have the total shits

I've got about 4 x 2L icecream containers of casualties in the freezer.. as a result of spontaneous turf wars....

Kept them as fish bait... bloody expensive bait...

The thing I don't get with yabbies... is I had a late hatch, that hasn't grown much through winter... and I haven't feed much... but the rest haven't touched them...

And I'd have to admit, that I really haven't had any great growth rates in the rest either... obviously I'm not feeding them properly or something... as I've had very few moults...

Nocky, interesting that your Marron supplier says that Marron wont do well in AP when he is also promoting keeping them in aquariums. I would have thought that water conditions in most AP systems would actually be better than the average aquarium.

Nocky, he may well be trying to escape, I don't know - he just doesn't seem to be trying to hard (which I am happy about).

Three weeks ago when the water was bad and I was having algae problems I first saw him up there and was sure he was trying to get out then (and I did not blame him, water was nasty and I am really surprised all four marron survived). Now though the water is perfect and he seems to have maintained the habit or climbing up there. What really surprises me is he has no fear of the kids being 600mm away learing and screaming - maybe I fried his small pea sized brain with the massive pH swing the other week .

It always seems to be the same one up on there, never the other three. They have become quite mobile in the tank now and cruise around on the bottom throughout the day. When they first went in they spent all day in the hides and you never saw them.

IS HE NOT JUST GRAZING?

Does not move or do anything, just sits there surveying the surrounds - probably keeping an eye out for an escape route as Nocky suggests.

Yes Gav is strange, and he does excellently well out of selling blues over east, I will ask him what the difference is, but on the other hand I have a small 40lt aquarium with 2 goldies 5 mussels and a blue marron and a bit of air no filter except the mussels, marron is happy as, even swims up and tries to eat the floating goldie food, but not much success in an ap environment, 8 escaped in first attempt and 8 died in second attempt, 2 big blues also died in 3rd attempt, Craigy has supplied a few to APers and basically same scenario, I think possibly you get 2 many element swings in AP, Marron prefer pH closer to 8 and ATM mine is 6ish, dropped in a couple of days, Amm and Nitrite spikes as well, and maybe even the Nitrates that we encourage, yet I test the aquarium every six months and same all the time, not to say it doesn't swing in the six months, but unlikely.
Rupe my yabbies are growing, and if yours are shedding shell then they must be as well, Marron eat about 1 of those pellets I sent a fortnight, with yabbies I throw 10-15 of same pellets in every couple of days if I remember, (if I forget they get angry and limbs start flying and the mussel soccer begins) for about 30 yabbies, I feed just as sun is down but not pitch dark, after about 5 mins you can see them coming out, is easy to see if they haven't eaten food, but the the Pygmies eat whats left over