# Yabbies (sorry long post)



## dellywatts (Mar 24, 2007)

Does anyone here know much about yabbies?
Here's the story:
We had 3 larger yabbies (say adult size yabbies) and 4 yabbies a bit smaller in size (say half the size of the large ones). Anyway we brought 10 feeder fish for the yabbies and the next day we had 1 feeder fish left. Then for weeks this one feeder fish was swimming around by itself. I felt sorry for it so we brought it 2 little friends. Now months later we still have the 3 (not so little fish anymore) living with the yabbies.
2 weeks ago i noticed that one of the smaller yabbies was gone. I thought it might have escaped somehow then i thought that maybe the others ate it, but i doubted that. Then i noticed that our larger female had eggs but not many then the next day they were gone. :? 
Yesterday i noticed that after a couple of days of tucking her tail under that she again has eggs. Just now i noticed that another smaller yabbie was missing. Then i noticed it in pieces through out the tank :shock: 
What are we doing wrong? I was told that they could live together okay. Why aren't the females eggs hatching/developing properly?


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## cris (Mar 24, 2007)

possibly water quality, low oxygen levels(most likely without knowing many details), high temperatures, not enough room resulting in fighting. Possibly other stuff too. Yabbies shouldnt be able to catch a healthy fish 99.99% of the time.

What are you keeping them in?


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## hornet (Mar 24, 2007)

what sort of fish and how big are they?


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## Lonsdale (Mar 24, 2007)

dellywatts said:


> Does anyone here know much about yabbies?
> Here's the story:
> We had 3 larger yabbies (say adult size yabbies) and 4 yabbies a bit smaller in size (say half the size of the large ones). Anyway we brought 10 feeder fish for the yabbies and the next day we had 1 feeder fish left. Then for weeks this one feeder fish was swimming around by itself. I felt sorry for it so we brought it 2 little friends. Now months later we still have the 3 (not so little fish anymore) living with the yabbies.
> 2 weeks ago i noticed that one of the smaller yabbies was gone. I thought it might have escaped somehow then i thought that maybe the others ate it, but i doubted that. Then i noticed that our larger female had eggs but not many then the next day they were gone. :?
> ...


 
Yabbies will kill and eat each other no problems and the disappearing eggs are due to the fish, If you want to breed them on a larger scale you will need a fair few more yabbies as they are aggressive towards each other


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## dellywatts (Mar 24, 2007)

They are in a 600 x 300mm tank (this is what we were told would be okay for them). 

More questions:
Why would eater quality make them eat each other?
How does having the fish in there affect the eggs?
So more yabbies will stop them eating each other? When we feed them they are more interested in fighting each other than eating the food. There is definately one really dominant, larger male in there.


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## cris (Mar 24, 2007)

Do you have an air pump?


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## IceTime (Mar 24, 2007)

You can buy food from pet shops similar to guinea pig pellets to feed them... I kept fresh water crays for years...big ones will eat little ones...and fight...lots.... I used to keep guppies with them but they only occasionally get grabbed...sometimes you would find little chomped in half fish  Some still alive...but fish arent sufficient food alone... Also like lizards and snakes you need to have lots of hides....not so much so they can hide...they are very territorial... and if the little ones dont have their own place...they usually end up food... I used small pvc piping... plus add lots of rocks etc and live plants if possible.... I found it best to drop a pellet or two at each crays hide...again to make sure they are each fed and dont fight for it...kinda like seagulls at the beach...


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## dellywatts (Mar 24, 2007)

Yeah we have an air pump.

Oh they don't get just fish to feed on. We mainly feed them blood worms (they look like pieces of chocolate, the frozen ones) and pieces of vegies etc. The fish are now eating this food too and are getting quite big! hmmmm... the one thing we are lacking is hide areas. Maybe that will help.


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## Oxyuranus microlepid (Mar 24, 2007)

try an airstone

o lol you got one...


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## cris (Mar 24, 2007)

Yeah in a tank that small you will definately need hides for them. standard fish food pellets make excellent food for them but they will eat almost anything. IMO bloodworms are a waste of money for them.
The water quality may cause poor health leading to them getting killed and eaten, but yabbies will kill each other anyway sometimes.

I doubt the fish would bother them, but some speices such as bream and banded grunters will kill yabbies much larger than they can swallow.

After the little yabbies have seperated from their mother move them or the fish and yabbies into a seprate tank or you will lose alot.


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## IceTime (Mar 24, 2007)

Yeah definately...if you dont have hides...get them... they really aren't a social creature... and you should find you get a few more surviving... tank size is an issue too...breeders I have know ideally kept them in large surface area tanks that were quite shallow in depth as opposed to width...So they guy you got them from wasn't lying they just seem to favour their own real estate... good filtration... mimics their natural habitat...
They are also escape artists... I kept crays downstairs and twice found a large one wandering in the back yard....i'd imagine yabbies would be similar...


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## dellywatts (Mar 24, 2007)

Thanks for the advice guys. I will definately get some hides and try the pellets. I'm also thinking of isolating the female while she has the eggs, what do you think?


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## little_angel (Mar 24, 2007)

Have you tried peas, corn, dog biscuits and bits of meat ( they are scavengers and eat anything in there water) 
Use to own some of the little suckers and they breed like rabbits!


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## cris (Mar 24, 2007)

dellywatts said:


> Thanks for the advice guys. I will definately get some hides and try the pellets. I'm also thinking of isolating the female while she has the eggs, what do you think?



yeah but take the others out and leave her in there, if they flick there tails when they have eggs it will probably kill most off the little ones(i found out the hard way). After they detatch from the tail they will need to be kept seperate or alot of them will get eaten.


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## Robbo (Mar 25, 2007)

when we used to breed them we used to use lots of pvc hides as well 
and feed them chook pellets and spinach leaves


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## Tatelina (Mar 25, 2007)

Lonsdale said:


> Yabbies will kill and eat each other no problems and the disappearing eggs are due to the fish, If you want to breed them on a larger scale you will need a fair few more yabbies as they are aggressive towards each other



So if there are more of them they won't be as aggressive?


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## hornet (Mar 25, 2007)

Tatelina said:


> So if there are more of them they won't be as aggressive?



there is always going to be a certain ammount of canibalism and its always going to be worse without hides, just throw a heap of pvc pipe in, they love it, also what fish are they with?


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## Scleropages (Mar 25, 2007)

Get a turtle.


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## hornet (Mar 25, 2007)

i get my mary river turtle 2day WOOT!!!!!


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## Scleropages (Mar 25, 2007)

hornet said:


> i get my mary river turtle 2day WOOT!!!!!


 

Feed it some crays


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## hornet (Mar 25, 2007)

lol i'll feed it prawns, its only a baby and i dont have crays


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## dellywatts (Mar 25, 2007)

hornet said:


> there is always going to be a certain ammount of canibalism and its always going to be worse without hides, just throw a heap of pvc pipe in, they love it, also what fish are they with?



I'm not sure what the fish's proper name is but in the aquarium they are called feeder fish.


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## wicked reptiles (Mar 25, 2007)

Are they orange with little black dots by their tails?


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## dellywatts (Mar 25, 2007)

They are silver with one black dot on their tails


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## christo (Mar 26, 2007)

As far as I know yabbies don't need to eat fish, or meat for that matter. Vegies like cooked carrot, pumpkin and spinach should be enough. The odd bit of fish wouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't bother with live fish, just chuck in a small chunk of the cheapest fish on offer at the supermarket (or even better, carp if you can get it). AT the moment I have a Yarra Crayfish in one of my tanks. It is living well on the bits of rotting plants (mostly java moss) and the odd small piece of vegie scrap.

BTW, yabbies will escape from even the best tank. I have been amazed by the ways they find to break out. Climbing up airlines and lifting the lid (perspex) off the tank seems to be their best skill.


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## munkee (Mar 26, 2007)

they seem overcrowded to me. When I bred yabbies I had two adults in a tank slightly larger than yours and when I found eggs removed the female to a separate tank. Air content shouldn't be a major issue as they can handle very low oxygen and survive. 

Sometimes you can't entirely predict any animal species though. More space would be a good suggestion.


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