Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We had 11 little yabbies' but now only 5 : ( There is no evidence of any dead ones. One yabbie is HUGE and wasn't when he arrived with the others a couple weeks ago. Im thinking that the big one is eating the little ones? We have fish in there that are doing OK and the yabbies' seem fine its just that at the last count, which admittedly is not exact, there was definitely less than 11. How can we keep the big one separate while allowing him some freedom too? It is only a bath tub system. Im sure this would have come up before and I bet anyone reading this who read my post about my system could see this coming. I don't know what sex they are but they are 4 months old and WA locals : ) Muchness in anticipation of helpfulness.

They have either eaten each other or the fish have eaten them, or perhaps birds.. Just be sure there are lots of hides for them, off cuts of pipes are great, you will find that ultimately they will fight over territory and you don;t end up with many, but hides definitely help. In a pond 2m x 1m we had lots but they were quite small and had, many hides. Scrunched up onion bags are great for small ones to hide in, especially if and when they breed.

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I was given 12 , and put them in a small 40L aquarium. ..
I uses some drilled limestone blocks (holy rock) to give separation..

Eventually there were three left.. they simply kept eating one another, despite my attempts to supply lots of food..

Two females and one male. The magic match... that is all that remained..

After a couple more moults, one female had berries (eggs) under her tail..
I placed her in another small aquarium and about three weeks later.. about 60 babies..

More experienced members suggest that you may get away with about ten grown individuals in a square meter..

So plus one to Earthbound's comments
What you need to do is get some conduit lengths and cut them into short lengths..

You can get short 1Mtr lenghts of different sizes from bunnings .. cut them into proportional lengths..
Small tube=small lengths... they will pick the best size for their growth stage.. just have as many as possible..

I suspect that they might appreciate structures they can climb, as when they moult, they need a safe place to hide and watch, as their shells harden...

And make sure there is no way they can climb out.. they really do want to go walkies...
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PS... I see others using longer lengths... there could be good thinking with long lengths as an individual can move up the tube, to avoid a searching viper..

Thanks. I have some pipes in already. I have added some shade cloth and some broken plant pots for extra hide outs. I have also added more fish from our pond as not getting enough food coming through for the plants. I am going to add some photos to my system and if I work it out will put a link here. If you see anything Im doing wrong or could do better please let me know. I have surmised from your comments not to try and isolate the big guy bit let them work out their territory and work from there : (