Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

LMAO
Wish we had fun pets like that here.

LOL - I have been planning to have a future growth area for redclaw, looks like I better incorporate meshing and take Gnash's advice with footwear

Now that the weather is really starting to warm up I have noticed another (possible/potential) problem with my system... Temnocephalid flatworms.

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/FHEp ... x.php?0408
http://www.insectarium.org/temno.html

'Temno' are ectocommensal (or epibiont) organisms, which means that they live on the outer surface of their host, but are not parasitic or harmful to the host, or the host to it (but not neccesarily beneficial either). The main issue with Temno is related to the marketing of the crays, the Temno eggs are attached very firmly to the shell and underside of the tail and while a salt bath will take care of the adults, the eggs remain. Their abundance in my systems (both my Marron and Yabbies have them) is an indicator of poor water quality and an excess of organic matter in the water, my DO levels are probably low also. I noticed the Temno a couple of weeks ago but it has taken me a while to determine exactly what they were.

I have tested and my levels are still fine, Ammonia and Nitrites are hardly registering and Nitrates are somewhere between 10 and 20. In order to improve the water quality though I spent a couple of hours yesterday doing some spring cleaning.

First I cleaned the gravel by hand with one of those siphon tube cleaners, bucketing the water with all of the suspended solids into the growbeds (I didn't want to waste all that goodness). Then I did a 25% water change and left the pump running continuously. This afternoon I changed my timer so that my pump runs for a half hour, then rests for a half hour, as opposed to resting for an hour and a half, and the water is now noticably clearer. I have also moved my air pump off of the timer so it is now running continuously in an effort to improve the DO. I'm going to feed less, and less often, perhaps once every couple of days, the marron won't starve because there is Vallis and submerged wood in each tank for them to eat. I'm also going to try to feed much less of the marron pellets (which REALLY foul up the water if left uneaten) and start feeding more of the pest-riddled leaves from the veggies in the growbeds.

I'll let you all know if this improves things.

What would eat temno in the wild? Could you introduce some of them?

S77 Try feeding them some small cubes of steamed pumpkin or carrot, instead of the marron pellets... Flatworms love warm temperatures, so if possible maybe shade the tank or try and cool it a bit.
[hr]
Can you see something strange about this picture of an adult Temnocephala?


Why do they have to scream like that?

maybe because they are happy!

Hey Crusty, hope you made it to this thread - what experience have you had with Temno, have you found them to be problematic or just an indicator that water quality was not ideal? How do commercial farmers deal with them?

Thanks, Simmo

Simmo, personally I have only encountered these guys on the east coast but only with the spiny [Euastacus] species. None of the spinys are commercial.

Thanks again for the info Crusty.

At the moment I have four Marron in an aquarium inside. I moved them for a few reasons:

1 - I wanted to improve the water quality/available DO in the AP system as I have had 3 losses in the past couple of weeks.
2 - The dead crays all had both of their claws and no limbs missing, so I wasn't sure whether it was from failed moulting or water quality or disease (or something else) rather than from fighting. Nitrite and Ammonia levels have been almost 0 for a long time now and the system is a very stable 7.6 ph due to shell grit.
3 - I found a female (woohoo) so I wanted to make sure I could keep an eye on her, and the situation with the temno.

So, the plan is to get my new tanks from BF hopefully on Sunday and start setting up the new AP system. Its capacity will be more than double what I have here and I also plan to use a couple of header tanks in the mix, so I should have more than 2000L all up. I've already started digging the holes.

Then, set up a salt bath in a spare tank and start a regime of bathing the Marron from my aquarium as you have suggested Crusty, until the temno are gone. Then I will move the males into the new AP system and start the same treatment on the remaining marron from this AP system before moving them to their new home also.

Then, I plan to select the best looking male of the bunch (there is one that is very dark in colour) and see if I can't make some baby marron.

I will post a pic tonight if my gf remembers to bring the cable home, I think I have managed to get a clear close up of the temno...

So many great posts in this thread and far too many topics to touch on. I wanted to drop this one in while it was in my mind and I continue to dig through this mountain.

Any reason why the chloramine can not simply be left in the water? and have you thought about using a layer of zeolite in the lower layers of your grow tubs?

Well designed airlifts will do the job and keep the do2 up for the aquatics? Air is cheaper to pump than water and to get the head heights from low pressure pumps, you usually need to overkill on volume... Yes no maybe?

What would be the mix of this?

Hi Crusty, Aquamad is in the process of doing some experiments with air lift pumps and hopefully he can put up some figures on this - always interested in improvements and comments that contradicts the norm

I am editing

Hmmm... OK... well... to bring it all back on track...

I have managed to get a close up pic of the temno, observe:



Just to the right of the text you can see one of the flatworms, for reference, it is no more than 3mm long and 1mm wide.

Another point to note is that this cray is currently regenerating its two main claws or chelepids (which are the first of 5 sets of periopods, or walking legs (I've been googling )), he probably lost those in a fight.

See those two blue 'penes' at the base of the fifth pair of periopods, thats what makes him a him, if you know what I mean.

This guy has actually been named Darren the Marron by my gf. He is by far the most active of all of the 4 Marron that I have moved to the indoor aquarium (pictured below), perhaps Steve McQueen has been having a word in his ear because he spends his whole time trying to escape.