Not exactly a shrimp

[Baccus]

Not exactly a shrimp, but I love this little guy. I was finally brave enough to move some of the rocks and things around in his tank to make sure he was still alive and doing ok. Turns out he is just fine and has even grown a little bit, but is still tiny and as cute as any shrimp.

[Squiggle]

That's awesome Baccus, very cool pics, he looks so cute :encouragement:

[Garnelchen]

He is very cute! What is it?

[Heavyd]

Oh, now I want one! Is it a Macrobrachium? (not sure on spelling)

[Baccus]

Thanks everyone, he is the cutest little yabbie. crayfish/ crawchie you will ever see. Sadly I wouldn't have a clue what exact species he is but could be in the swamp yabbie family.

[Heavyd]

Will have to wait for Northboy to pipe up them.

[Baccus]

I might need him to not only pipe up on them but also see if he can get me a couple more. I am hoping they are in the dwarf swamp yabbie family and only get to around 2.5cm in size. Perfect tank yabbie size.

[Heavyd]

If they are, then he may need to get a few more for me as well ;)

[ineke]

Very cute little yabbie

[MrShrimp]

Those nippers looks like they can throw a heavy punch. Would love to get in line for some of these guys. SNIP SNIP

[northboy]

Good to see it made the trip to, it is from the Cherax depressus groupe, possibly cairnsensis or wasselii or Red finger crayfish for a common name.

The good news is I have some from below the falls and above it to and they look the same, the biggest one is 5cm and a very nice male. That is the falls from Barney springs to keep every one in the picture.

Just to set you mind at ease Bacc we are going back one night this week for a look and a dive, The Rainbows from there are way different form the ones in Rocky creek to.

These guys and group of Crayfish are Top tank critters, but are good fish hunters, they breed easy in captivity, need a lot of Veg in there diet to get and keep good colour and are tame critters compared to the ones down south.

For any one that likes crayfish, I have some of my old strain of Sky Blue and Hot Pink red claws coming next month.

Bob

[Baccus]

Yep he travelled just fine, same with shrimp. The shrimp are living it up in the jungle of plants but if I want to find them all I have to do is put one of the suspended nets back in the tank and the shrimp all come back to it to pick over. This little yabby I am pretty sure I got up in the top pond where the shrimp where thickest and swimming around like schools of fish. I am pretty sure he was secreted away in the moss that was all over the timber that was in the pool. I would like to see the rainbows, up close and personal since they where pretty quick and not so easy to see in the first pool. I wish I could get back up that way more easily but alas its a looooong boring drive with soooo much road works.

[gravychic]

I love yabbies, what a little cutie! When I was a kid I used to catch them down at the local creek and keep them in the bathtub (much to mom's dismay lol), they can get surprisingly tame! I had one that would sit on my hand and chill; he even learnt to climb up a shoelace/string with his claws up onto my bed to get a treat, ahh they are such cool little critters!

Then when I was in uni studying aquaculture we had to breed yabbies which was awesome fun! Unfortunately when the semester was over we had to kill and dissect all the adults, it was one of the saddest things I've ever had to do, unsurprisingly the other members of my prac group were all 'sick' on the day we had to do that prac leaving me to butcher all our babies by myself... it really sucked...

[Baccus]

That is terrible, having to kill something that you have previously been giving the best possible care too. I know at high school we had to raise egg laying and meat chickens as a study in how quickly they grew and weight gains. At the end the egg layers went into battery cages (man I hate those evil things but at least our chooks only had one bird per cage), and the meat chickens all got killed by the Ag plot farm hand while us students then plucked and gutted them. Disecting one of the farm angora goats wasn't much fun either. Any way back to the yabby, he certainly is a sweet little guy, and as much as I would like to know exactly which species he might be, I am not keen on having to kill him and preserve him for future true indentification. Instead I think I am happy to keep him and see how big it eventually gets.

[matblack]

cherax destructor possibly

[northboy]

No not Destructor, it is definitely Cherax depressus group, this group has 5 subspecies but if they are looked at there will be more, you can bet safely it a wasselli because of where it came from. The water fall there is not a big enough barrier to stop the movement of cray fish and crabs, it is big enough to stop fish and shrimps moving into the Springs.

Night time there is WOW way different and no photos I did not take a strobe light or under water video light, next trip I will, the life changes so much from day to night.

I have 8 more at the moment.

There is also a slightly metallic population of them, where every one is different.

[northboy]

OH forgot to add they are suppose to get to 10cm, but I have not seen one over 7cm, so good in tanks but good fish and snail hunters.

Bob

[Baccus]

Well if he wants to eat snails I have more than enough populations to let it hunt. Only trouble is I bet it would want ramshorn or pond/ bladder snails rather than my huge pest MTS. An interesting side note about snails where the ramshorn snails have all but been erradiacted in my tanks hydra are starting to appear, mostly in the filters. So maybe ramshorns do have a use, aside from feeding loaches.

[northboy]

Don't forget feeding Turtles to

Bob

[OzShrimp]

Don't forget feeding Turtles to

Bob

do you like eating turtles bob >

[Baccus]

That too. I was wanting to get and keep some fireflies but apparently only the young eat and feed on snails. I wonder if aquatic snails would do for them or if they need land based snails. If water snails where a suitable food source then it should be fairly easy to keep a colony of fireflies.....just a shame they reckon the adults only live for around 4 days.

[northboy]

Snails well dam I learned something today, I never, as for water snails??

There was a few Fireflies at Barney springs the other night and I drove through some tonight, I could not slow down as I had no clutch and if I slowed I had to start from a stop in first gear AGAIN.

Bob

[Baccus]

Just snapped some new pics of my little yabby, since it rather unsportingly remains under one of its rocks when ever the camera is handy I put him in a small 25 gram tub that I get fly pupae in for my birds. The first couple of pictures are in the shed with a flash the last couple where outside in sunlight with no flash.

[ineke]

He's growing nicely Baccus :encouragement:

[Baccus]

Thanks Ineke, its still a tiny little dear, but seems happy in his new home (the tank not the tub ;)) with a couple of snails and one small macro shrimp.