Thread: Yabby Tank the quick & nasty model

Bleedin'

Australian Red rock is that red rock they bring in from Sth Oz and Centralia that tends to be full of holes and can be stacked to make reefs and strata in freshwater tanks. It gives lots of light and shadow and places for Botias and Plecos to hide in.

Regards

Rob

Originally Posted by Shedhand

I want to know what a 110kg "Live Rock" is???? Too heavy to be Bob bloody Geldorf :confused:

Meatloaf maybe

"What, we have here, is, failure, to communicate"

The Yabby doesn't live in tropical seawater, and a bee would not be able to touch on a floating plant to get a drink from those fancy fish tubs. Bees do not drink seawater.

No-one has asked me for the plan or design of how to cut out the the side of a 200 litre blue plastic barrel.

The pictures you lot have shown are not of yabbies.

On the other hand, I really envy those of you with saltwater tanks, but does one have to have a degree in plumbing as well as marine biology?

By the way, I must place some bird wire over my tub to keep the yabs in and the water birdies out. That stone of which you speak, is from the Woomera area, and known locally as Woomera Rock, It's great for tanks, but take it out and leave it in the sun for a few days at a time to kill off nasties.

Hi Buzza,

Its been a while since I bought that rock and now I remember its Woomera rock. Looks good at night with its soft blue glow.

I assume you will use Perspex in the barrels bonded with Silastic? If you can find Mosquito fish (Gambusia) nearby, they like those and you'll be doing the environment a favour as they are introduced.

Water birds, Kookas, and even Maggies and Mynahs are fond of yabbies. Whatever you do though, don't overfeed them. Nothing worse than a flabby yabbie.
Oh, a small water pump would be of use in your current enclosure and essential in the barrel. You could use a small external pump linked to an airstone, or a submersible with a filter cartrige attached. Don't know that the mud is essential, yabbies live in a variety of environments and in some sub alpine regions are very happy on a gravel bed. I think mud will probably make for more work. Moving the plants around is their way of making sure no one sneaks up on them. Remember that they are territorial. In Tropical tanks Cichlids are absolutely fastidious at removing anything that obstructs their view.

Regards

Rob

do you keep the yabbies to eat? do they breed in a tank?


I camped at a place called Dookie (Victoria) many moons ago, near a canal of some sort and the only thing I had to eat was yabbies out of the canal. I used a bit of road kill in a stocking to catch 'em. They were delicious.

Dams and swamps are good places, most will be dry with the Yabbies deep in the mud waiting for some rain. Nothing like an old copper full of cooking Yabbies.

Originally Posted by Shedhand

I camped at a place called Dookie (Victoria) many moons ago, near a canal of some sort and the only thing I had to eat was yabbies out of the canal.

That area is full of irrigation channels, and some of the biggest yabbies I have ever seen, although where we are now we get freshwater crays up to 2kg, just watch those big claws though, they hurt

Hi Buzza,
I like the low tech approach to your yabbie tank, but have to admit a grudging admiration to these other flash units...even if I didn't spy one yabbie in there. You guys have prolly spent more on your fish than I've spent on myself in the last year!!
MY YABBIE STORY....We cultivated a lot of yabbies on the family farm in WA, eastern imports that adapted well to farm dams, even the slightly salty ones. We often seperated the egg-bearing females and spread them to other dams on the property, and we trialed lots of netting/trapping ideas as well as feeding regimes. Surprisingly enough the blighters really like lupins, the whole seed or grain, and a spread of that just off the bank would see them swarming in, ready to be netted.
Recently over here I took my girls yabbie fishing at a local spot known to the fishing fraternity, using wire pots and meat-on-a-string...the usual childhood method. I kept finding tumble weed sunk into the ponds, with bits of string attached. When these weeds were dragged out, blow me down if yabbies weren't stuck in the branches! I guess they had been baited, a local technique that seems ridiculous but works fine. Of course we weren't allowed to eat them, but they stayed for a while in containers before being liberated in a mate's fish pond.

I miss having a boiling copper full of yabbies, almost prefer that to prawns!!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Buzza

"What, we have here, is, failure, to communicate"

Buzza we weren't trying to hijack your thread we were trying to warn you where the keeping of a few yabbies in a plastic bucket will inevitably lead you.
We were mearly trying to save you from emotional and financial ruin.

Here is a link to your next step on your path to ruin. Yes the old Cherax destructor will soon seem passe ......just look at those spiney numbers....


http://www.crayfishworld.com/contents.htm

Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

Buzza we weren't trying to hijack your thread we were trying to warn you where the keeping of a few yabbies in a plastic bucket will inevitably lead you.
We were mearly trying to save you from emotional and financial ruin.

Yep Bleedin is spot on.... I think I originally started with cheap kids plastic tank with an axolotel (?sp) many many years ago..... tis a slippery slope

I have to let you all know that as I've been a round for a long time, I've had lots of hobbies over the years. I've alway had a tropical fresh-water fish tank indoors and a pond or two out in the yard. So, I made the quick and nasty model to keep the "nipperators" away from the goldfish.

I got hold of a stock watering tub years back, and it's about six feet across and two feet deep and shaped like a pie dish. This is the ideal size for a pond, as the depth is good for plants, and fish. The high temperatures don't bother the fish as some of those expensive water-fall types do. (Boiled fish anybody). My "Stock Tub Pond" has goldfish fry in it right now, so everything is happy in there. Get them from an agricultural dealer.

The gambusia seemed to have vanished from the area where I live and unless someone still has a few in the yard ponds, I'll have trouble getting them. Meanwhile, feeding the yabs lupin seed might be a good idea, thanks for the tip.

I don't mind the thread being hi-jacked at all, it has shown me what some of you people have been doing with yourselves, and it all looks so great. A salt-water tank is just the ultimate I think.

My yabbies by the way, came from a pair that was placed into a garden pond, and have now bred up big time.

After seeing bigger ponds displayed here, I went "Dumpster Diving" and found this

one. I think I now can safely join the ranks of the Bog Pond Guys.

This one is seven feet long by four feet wide and well over two feet deep.

Don't tell our yabbies. They live in an old baby bath.