Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wonder of anyone could point me to optimum conditions details for growing yabbies .. redclaw and destructor.

Currently I am feeding them the black stuff from my worm farm, a few worms and pig food.

I have 10 redclaw yabbies in a small tank at home (Floor area of tank is is 53 cm x 42 cm) with filter and aeration, sand and gravel bottom and some shell grit to give the hard water and calcium they need for shell growth + old coffee mugs as hidey holes.

I understand that they fight to the death if stock density per floor area is too great.

Perhaps it would be better to have a stacking system ) 6 or 7 crates high. I am thinking of using the "crates" you can buy from K-mart, bold colours ( are about 36 cm x 36 cm x 36 cm) ... then thinking of an easy way of stacking them...

I am thinking of using the bottom one as a sump then I would feed water into the top crate using a small submersible pump and allow subsequent overflow downwards from crate to crate for aeration using some retic pipe fitted as an overflow. Air driven filter would be located in the bottom tank.

The kids at school want to set up a tank with some "destructors", and perhaps maybe some of the other varieties (kanaks, marron, etc. etc.) if we get real good and experienced at keeping yabbies.

Oh .. secrets to getting them to breeding small tanks?

Johnnie, Not secrets mate, raise the water temp to at least 16C probably better at 20C, thats it. If you want to breed them then i'd keep the females seperate so you don't eat them but you won't need many females anyway. This document pretty much covers it all http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/aquacul ... ater_yabby

Oh, and i got mine to beed consistantly in a 1.5 Foot tank

Steve

nothing linked to this site seems to find it difficult to breed - WHEN i get my large system up and running the aim is to brred my own redclaw stock - keep the biggest females at each harvest, eat the rest (yummo)!

AM, the first line of your last post confused me. (proabanly the 4 hrs sleep i had lst night) Did my link not work?

Steve

hmmm, no, I was going off at a tangent, we all breed so well, redclaw and yabby breed so well... get it, no one battles to breed... sorry, have babies and screaming toddlers on the mind and in the ears!

I hear they can do that to you

Just got them to sleep... wow they can sap the energy right outa you. Who needs Ga-uld technology to drain life force, all you need are some over active toddlers!

AM, (giggle) you net a zat to put them to sleep, just make sure you only shoot them once, two hits kill, third hit disintergrates, missus might be upset with that

Steve,

Thanks for the link my friend!

Appreciated!

The yabbies are about 5 cm long at the moment and seem to be very happy once I added a little semi-rotted black material from my worm bins.

Ice cream containers are probably not an option, too small ... but how many male and how many female yabbies would you keep in a tank of floor area 36 cm x 36 cm? (Asume it is littered with old coffee mugs and flowerpots, PVC pipe etc. etc. to give them hide places.

BTW ..

lemme know about the micro worms ..

If its legal .. I can send to you packed in ice!

I have a real healthy brew .. (I am sure they are scottish, cos they love porridge!)

I have one more week at work .. then I will experiment and see if my tiny fridge culture has survived 10 weeks in the fridge!

If they have .. then ... I always have a culture on hand!

On ice over a couple of days should not be a prob.

Here is the recipie for food for these nematodes .. (food for fry)

Get some instant oats .. add boiling water to a couple of tablespoonfuls.

Cool to about blood heat (37 deg)

Add a little bakers yeast .

Leave for 6 hours or so.

Transfer to ice cream container. ( punch air holes in lid!)

Add microworm culture.

Leave outside for a couple of days (mine are on top of my bar fridge) - (no bar .. but a fridge outside with beer in it!)

Give a little shake .. now and again ..

Then ...bearing in mind that these worms are "microscopic" ...

at night get a torch and shine it on them .. the mass will glisten like moving glitter ...

Look at te sides of the container .. worms will be stuck to the sides ...

drag your finger over these .. and dip them in your fry tank ...

you can feed baby fish .. less than 1 mm in length!

Every 3 weeks or so make up another culture and innoculate with a bolb of stuff from your ongoing culture ... (and keep some in the fridge) just in case!

that is sensational

Sorry Johnnie, who do i ask about it again?

I've never had much luck with asking goverment depts. and getting reasonable answers. I emailed once to clarify something on the vic fisheries website re convic cichlids, and the reply was "refer to the website"

very keen to get some

Steve

It has crossed my mind... one of them little beauties would be great..
Hmm, wonder if it works on bodies of water, shoot a pond, fish are stunned and float, you collect them and stock your system (would that make you a 'system lord'??!! )
If you are not a stargate follower that weak joke would be lost on you, sorry

LOL, next thing you'll be doing AM is pouring molten gold into one of your fish's foreheads and making him first prime. Tilapia, first prime to AM.........has aring to it.......... Best keep this for the SG-1 thread.......EB's gonna get all these new members after the gardening australla episode airs and their going to think we are all freaks (well i think a few of us are, but don't tell any one )

dont you see, dont you get it...???
WE are normal (ish), THEY are the strange ones!