Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i might just do that!

Anyone know a place in or near busselton (or perth) that i could get a male and female pair?

AH there might be a few places steve!!
You could prolly sellect them and fly back with them.

http://members.westnet.com.au/wamarron/htm/prizing.html

if you could get 12 for $32 less than $3 each isn't to bad!

What would your chances be of getting a pair.

So do they sort them and provide both male/female.... or is it just a lucky dip each order??

thanx C1 thats my plan

Golden ponds in Baldivis is definately a place in Perth (sorta metro).

http://www.goldenponds.com.au/fishing-p ... alia.shtml

ta guys, will revisit this thread closer to my travel date.

Steve, if you dont want to Drive all the way to Pemberton from Busso you could get some from Capel Marron Farm which is just off the highway between Bunbury and Busselton. You can buy whatever size and sex you want from them without having to buy a kilos worth.

edited because of a double post. sorry.

I'm not sure how much you all know about crayfish. So, I thought I might be able to help out a bit here. Sexing crays isn't always easy, the larger the cray, the easier it is. And the better your eyes are helps too. But this bit is true with all the Cherax family of crays, redclaw, marron, yabbies or any of the other sub crays in the family.

The first pic is a general anatomy showing where the gonopods are on the walking legs...


Looking from the lowest set, closest to the tail... on a male that's where they'll be. On a female, they'll be two more up from there. To try and make it a little easier, here are a couple of pics I took of some Tiger or Zebra crayfish I was holding for a friend...



This is a male. It can sometimes take a bit, but when you know what you're looking at and for, you can tell the boys from the girls.



I circled the gonopods here to make it easier, it's a female.

I hope that helps any would be crayfish farmers in choosing breeding pairs.

Oh, and if you are choosing crays for breeding, my minimum suggested stock would be 2 females and 4 -6 males. You also want to get males that are about the same size and are larger than the females.

Good luck and let me know if there's anything else I can help with in the way of crayfish info, that's at least something I'm a little familiar with.

I thought you generally stocked more females than males, whats the benefit of having the extra males?

Also another question, what does it mean when the crayfish (more specifically a yabby) has both? one side it has the male bit and the otherside the female pore? Is it a genetic mutation? caused by indreeding or something? or is it a specific genetic trait bred to produce infertile offspring to enhance growth and decrease aggression or something?

cheers

You could hide them in your budgie smugglers, just don't warm them to much and get them active...those nippers could do a bit of damage

A lot of crayfish species are capable of changing gender and others are born as hermaphrodites. It's a random thing, not from inbreeding per se. Just a mutation. And they are better for the pot as they don't consistently breed at all. More often than not, they won't.

The benefit to starting a system with more than one male, the Oh Shoot factor! Bad things can and WILL happen. IF you just have one male and he dies before helping to procreate the next generation, well you have to somehow acquire another male that is LARGER than your current female crays. And you also want to be sure that your females are not TOO big, the older a female cray, the harder she is to breed! Generally any female in the Cherax family that is older than a year to 18 months is better for the pot than the breeding tank.

ah cool, thanks

I live 5 a five minute drive from the murray river, we put drop pots in to catch them over the winter months. they can grow pretty big. Remember the measurment is eye socket to end of carapace, ie the tail and claws not in that. There is a stuffed cray at the local pub that is pretty big if its still there ill take a picture of it and post it


springa

edit- also when we say biggest are we talking length or weight?

I've heard that the murray cray is are endangered in the ACT (i.e. can't fish for them) but it's legal in NSW. I will ask my bro more about it.