Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Its cold man..

We have had the coldest winter in Kalgoorlie so far, most mornings are around 2deg.

It has been like that around here too. Cold + wind + nightshift = unhappy rsevs3

Seeing as you are the yabbie/marron master i have a question. In a tank as a pet, do yabbies need to have a cold spell to hibernate at all? I seem to remember reading that somewhere but cant find it now.

I dunno Charlie, isn't that kind of bordering on animal cruelty issues if they can't even turn around?

what about these prawn crates, at least they can turn around...




I bought a few of these off a guy for about 2-3 bucks each..

Those look like they would stack well if you could find a way to get food in there.

I didn't conform well top the forum policy for images....

They burrow in winter in their natural habitat. This is one of the single biggest issues in hard bottom tanks through winter. Till now I have kept my yabbies in a tank in the shed through winter but I have dicided to try a few things this winter. All my experiments are aimed at helping myself and more importantly others understand the workings of yabbies in AP through all seasons.



The pic doesnt do much justice I suppose. You know Im against cage farming and I winge about EDU's every time we discuss yabbie stock levels. The quick knock up Ive done does give them plenty of room to venture the full length of the tank and easily turn all which ways.

I like the idea of the prawn crates but they are still limited on the area they can venture so same same if you ask me.

I think we would agree that the term "cage farming" is reflective to a restricted and confined life style to the point of inhumane. I believe that the tubes still offer room to cruise around and eat all the biofilm, bicro-organisms and waste feed.

Heres some pics with a marron in the tube so to better understand dimentions. This will obviously need to be reviewed as they grow. The marron are still only very small.

What about if they are in an aquarium with sand to burrow into? Can they stay at a constant temp all year round?


I can just see that marron sing to itself 'Day is never finished... Masters got me growin...'

Hides are your yabbies best friend

Providing a hide gives them a place of comfort and well being. I spoke some time ago on a thread somewhere in the archives about providing a complex habitat when growing/keeping yabbies at home in an aquariaum. I spoke about keeping mixed sex's in a small aquarium tank and how important it is to get adventurous with a habitat that is interesting and diverse. If you proide multiple hides, different aggregate pebble bed with larger stones as well of different textures, things to climb, water plants to destroy and re-arrange they become very busy creatures during the night. Its fantastic to check in the morning and see what they have been up to during the night. A nice deep bed of small pebbles is a fantastic burrowing base and with the help of some man made shelters thay actually live quite well together. They will re-arrange a whole tank in one night to their liking and will each find their individual home in each corner of the tank.

Sounds like his new home will be perfect once i make it escape proof

Thanks mate

I kept small yabbies in an aquarium a few years ago, they are awesome movers of material.

Should start a mine, maybe mineral sands?, flood it and fill with yabbies, instant mining crew

Woke up to the power out today.

Checked system and back-up system working a treat.

HSM avoided

Went back to bed.

Nice work Charlie, nice work !!

Did a mandarin harvest today. Not related to AP but Im quite proud so your going to hear about it!

Heres some pics, we got a couple of mandarins....

Fabulous Do they taste good??