Yabbies (sorry long post)

[dellywatts]

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?

 

[cris]

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?

 

[hornet]

what sort of fish and how big are they?

 

[Lonsdale]

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?

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

 

[dellywatts]

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.

 

[cris]

Do you have an air pump?

 

[IceTime]

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...

 

[dellywatts]

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.

 

[Oxyuranus microlepid]

try an airstone

o lol you got one...

 

[cris]

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.

 

[IceTime]

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...

 

[dellywatts]

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?

 

[little_angel]

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!

 

[cris]

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.

 

[Robbo]

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

 

[Tatelina]

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?

 

[hornet]

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?

 

[Scleropages]

Get a turtle.

 

[hornet]

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

 

[Scleropages]

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

Feed it some crays