Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,
I know this has been said so many times but I've spent time looking an searching through old posts an can't find what I want so here it is.
I'm thinking of adding yabbies to my system to see if they will breed and as a bit of a show thing for family.
I was wondering if I put yabbies in the bottom of my main tank with silvers how will they go and if they die ect will it poison my water.
Or my other option is to tee into my grow bed water supply line and run a tap into another tub then have it overflow back to my tank, so not being filtered but contanly flowing water to keep air circulation.
But if they die in the tub will the water still posion or contaminate the fish tank.
Any thoughts please

Yabbies tend to eat yabbies (or at least types i have dealt with) so in a 'healthy' system you are likely to only realise after some time that numbers decline. So your only issue would be if something happened that caused multiple yabbies to die.
re: fish risk - mostly decaying yabbies would produce ammonia/nitrites, same as a dead fish would.
cannot comment on SP but I do not think there are any significant disease issues.

Tried Yabbies with Goldfish and get the odd dead GF show up. Maybe you could have a couple for the 'show thing' but you could not have high numbers of yabbies and fish together. Would need lots of hideaways or crate condo's.

number of people on forum put yabbies into the sump tank - if you have a large enough ST then that could be an option.
I think your separate off-take would be fine. I seem to recall that yabbies etc dont produce as much waste product as fish (they require less inputs anyway) so nutrient spikes may be less of an issue. The only issue might be if the yabbies are sensitive to something occurring in the FT.

Charlie likes his Yabbie posts and some point to discussions along lines you are seeking - try searching yabbies and 'charlie' as the author in the advanced search box (button near to the login & user messages buttons). That pulled up a lot of posts to browse.

also are you specifically looking at yabbies - or local gilgies etc.

breeding different story - that would require a dedicated approach as everything would eat babies.
(so at least separate tank).

Gday Hezzy89

Yabbies are real easy to breed in AP. I introduced wild caught yabbies into my AP sump tank & the larger females became berry with in two months.
Yabbies are fairly hardy but plenty of hides are required as they are very territorial & will attack/eat each other. They could go into the main FT depending on the size of your SP, as larger SP will eat them especially when the yabbies molting as they are very vulnerable then.
From my experience any yabbies that die are generally eaten fairly quickly so do not pose much of a problem to the water quality. If you do regular water testing it will be easy to tell if there is something wrong as there will be a spike in the ammonia reading.
Hope this helps
GTK

The others advice is good. Its all a size and density thing. Small fish may be eaten by yabbies and small yabbies may get eaten by large fish. And yabbies eat yabbies.


Heres a vid of trout, SP and a couple of yabbies in my old system.

Just curious, I've been tempted to put yabbies in my sump tank (it's pretty big, probably 3-4 square meters of space), but I'm worried about solids collecting around their hides. Once or twice a month I get my broom out, and woosh up all the solids that have settled in there, I don't want to crush any yabbies that can't swim away.

Or will the yabbies eat/sort out the solids/uneaten food that settles?

They do a good job of cleaning up uneaten food, leaves, plants, algae and organisms. Unfortunately, they leave their own waste behind. Not a big deal in a sump tank your size though. Go for it, you'll enjoy them.

I'm worried about solids collecting around their hides. Once or twice a month I get my broom out, and woosh up all the solids that have settled in there, I don't want to crush any yabbies that can't swim away.

you can use PVC tubes with one end closed. then just lift the tubes up and sweep around.
most of the traps in farm dams are simply PVC tube + cap with a rope at front.
else they run/swim back very fast anyway when a big ugly monster is after them

slightly off topic - but didn't you try shrimp in your DWC at one point Colum ?

how did they go with cleaning up ?

I don't know what happened to them.

I put them in there, two minutes later I'd lost sight of them. I haven't seen them since.

I've looked, but I don't think they are still in there.

*shrugs*

when that happens with yabbies it is often the result of a neighbourly disagreement.

no evidence and a lot of whistling yabbies.... (or at least one anyway)

Do yabbies survive in DWC?

I could add another 10 Square meters they could survive in.

Or would they munch on all my roots (depends on how much they eat though, my celery could do with a bit of a trim)?

not sure. Our native gilgies live in small creek pools as long as flowing water (need good DO) but dont grow so big. And people keep small yabbies in fish tanks.
I would say 300-400mm deep would be OK and from memory your DWC is big - be good for a nursery for little guys.

The problem would be getting them up to size if you wanted to munch on them, but if only 'pets' then not a very high risk at $1 each. They would need a few pellets but the skrettings sinking would be OK., else happy with algae etc.

use a couple of 50mm PVC pipes for homes. Simply pick up and tip them out to see if still alive.
when they give you the finger for tipping them out (or the claw as things may be) then they are OK.

Hi all

Thankyou for your input, I have the same yabbies as the ones in video,
I don't currently have a sump tank as it won't work out in my system very well.
I have lots of extra power in my pump and am thinking I could put a tub above my water level and tap straight into a feed line and just run water through the tub to keep air in it.
I have plenty of room in my tank for yabbies but I Beleive the silver perch (2gk) would eat. The yabbies easily lol. Thought maybe two marron in the ft just for show but not sure about that idea either lol.
I'm undecided in all my ideas lol..
How many yabbies can u stock in say 1mx1m tank with plenty of hiding spots

Hi
Could you post a picture of your yabbie an setup please

Hezzy, have a look through some of my posts in this link regarding stock densities etc

viewtopic.php?p=365926#p365926

Just saves me writing it again