Blue Claw Yabby 10cm

The Yabby is a freshwater crayfish, also known as a crawchie, crawdad, craybob or even lobbie, it's dependant on where you come from. These yabbies are also know as the western blue claw; they are a native of the Murray Darling System (west of the Great Divide) as well they are basically blue in colour. Blue claw yabbies are genetically blue, but will change colour to that which is most suitable for camouflage in the wild. Yabbies can be any colour blue, black, white, brown, red, green or any combination. Yabbies grow to a maximum size of 350 gram, however, the common large size is 120 150 gram. Yabbies have a life span of only 5 7 years under ideal conditions, in the wild their life expectancy is much shorter as then are on the bottom of the food chain and a vast amount of animals consume them. Some of their main predators are insect larvae, fish, eels, turtles, birds and water rats.

Aquarium yabbies make excellent pets, basically treat them the same as a gold fish. Fill the tank completely with water, yabbies breathe oxygen from the water the same as fish. An aerator or filter in the tank will keep your water fresher longer. Water quality is directly related to the amount of food placed into the water. Don't feed yabbies meat, feed your yabbies pellets or vegetables. Shelter is important, each yabby requires a home, rocks or logs in the tank are essential.

Yabbies are fast growing, but to do so they must molt. Yabbies have a hard exoskeleton which limits their size, for them to grow they moult this one and grow a new one. In farm dam situations the majority of your population going from newborn to over 100mm ( 50 gram ) in one year. However, there is an extreme variation in growth rates of individuals from the same brood. Some may reach this size in six months, whereas, others may take longer than two years. Growth is dependant on the availability of food, shelter, density and water temperature. Yabbies are cold blooded animals, the warmer the water the faster their metabolism goes and the faster they grow etc. Below 10 deg.C yabbies dont feed. From 10 14 deg.C they feed but no noticeable growth, above 14 deg. C noticeable growth. Best growth when water temperatures are between 22 28 deg. C. Depending on the amount of time, effort and money available, it is possible to grow your yabbies from 0 to 150mm ( 100 gram ) plus in twelve months.