Australian Yabbie

dylema

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I have just done some aquascaping and put a light over my yabbie tank so I thought I should take his picture and show you all. His name is Destructor (scientific name is Cherax destructor)

For those non Aussies yabbies are a fresh water crayfish which are found in many dams and waterways in the south east and south west of Australia. They are often eaten by people (I rescued this one from work before he made it onto the plate) and grow to 25cm (mine is about 20cm) but are usually about 15cm when on the plate. They are a cold water crustation but they are very happy in water around 25 degrees C however if stocking levels are high then water temp needs to be low to prevent fighting, at 15 degrees they effectively go into hibernation. They like slightly alkaline water and are salt tolerant (up to 25g/l but prefer under 6g/lt). They are drought resistant and can burrow into dam and river banks (this gives them the name destructor). They can hold some water in their gills by clamping there sides and this gives them the ability to get out of the water and walk a long way. They like murky water as this provides prtection from birds of prey but they will not become bright and blue if kept in brown water. They are omnivorous but usually feed on vegetation as this is more readily available in dams. They can not be kept with any other types of fish as they will eventually be eaten. My yabbies favourite snack is peas and snails.

Hope you like him.

His tank
YabbieTank.jpg


Him and his claws
DSCF2472.jpg
 
i have one too, mines a female at about 4" long. shes kept in a 30" tank, she seems happy enough.. nice pic!
 
Ahh he's awesome!

Yabbies are rad. When i did Agriculture at school my teacher wanted to do something different rather then just farming the usual animals. So we set up some two foot tanks and bought a few yabbies to see if they would breed. They did, very successfully. Then we set up two huge pools, got some more yabbies, and bred them aswell! Baby yabbies are so cute XD
 
can you stick a yabbie into a new tank to get it started?

been thinking about trying it out. They are pretty tough little things. I remember catching them in the most unlikey dams and irrigation channels when i was a kid.

can get some nice lookin babies from the LFS.
 
awww shouldn't have opened this topic, I'm now going to get pestered for a yabbie!!
 

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