Looking after yabbies

Aquarium Pets

Yabbies make excellent aquarium pets, but before you have one as a pet, listen to what this yabby has to say.

Hi, I’m a yabby and I want to be your pet. I’m an easy pet to look after, all I need is a home to call my own, food to eat and oxygen to breathe.

Most people keep me in a fish tank, just like a Goldfish. If I am small and the tank is large, then no aeration is required, but I would be happiest with a small aquarium aerator going all the time. Aerators are very good for me as they not only place oxygen in the water for me to breathe, but also circulate the water and reduce the risk of pollution occurring in my tank.

In my tank I also like sand or gravel on the bottom, so when I get bored I can pretend to be a bulldozer and dig holes and make mountains with the gravel. Also, a rock or log that I can climb over and make a home under would be wonderful.

As a climber none can compare, so in my tank please beware air hoses, rocks and logs I will climb, so keep a lid on my tank all the time.

I don’t eat much and most people kill my friends with kindness by over feeding them. Please don’t overfeed me! I only eat a little food and if you place more than I can eat into my tank then the extra food just sits on the bottom and rots. Rotting food will pollute my water and polluted water will kill me. Please be careful I’m too young to die.

I’m not a very fussy eater. In fact I will eat almost anything if it is fresh, I don’t like rotten food. Most people feed me vegetable matter, this is better than meat as meat pollutes my water very rapidly.

Specially formulated, water stabilized yabby pellets are great, also sinking fish food, budgie seed, potato peels, spinach, peas, circles of carrot and most fruits are some of my favorite foods. All aquatic plants are also excellent food, especially if you are going on holidays for a week or two. Just go down to your local creek, collect a few handfuls of water weeds and drop them into my tank. The weeds will live and grow in the tank without polluting my water, so I can eat whenever I like. If you want to feed me meat, then garden worms are best, they can live for extended periods in my tank until I get around to eating them.

I’m a prolific breeder and hundreds of young ones are the norm. If I’m a female I’ll lay eggs under my tail which take 6–8 weeks to hatch into tiny baby yabbies that are miniature adults. When all my babies are running around the bottom of the tank I can be taken away from them, otherwise I may eat them. Other adults will also eat babies so if left in the tank then lots of shelter is required as the more hiding places the greater the survival.

As a baby I’m cute and friendly and I’ll eat the same food as mum and dad, but I quickly become bored if fed the same food day after day, so please give me a variety.

I’m easy to look after – if you follow these rules – you cant go wrong, but be warned!

I’m a yabby and very strong, so be extra careful – or I’ll nip on!

Many people in the course of keeping yabbies for pets have the need to add extra yabbies to a tank with existing yabbies in it. This can be a problem. The ones in the tank are in their own territory, when you add extras they are invaders and a massive fight will occur with death or injury the result. To alleviate this problem, simply remove existing yabbies from the tank and rearrange it. For example move your rocks from one side to the other, mound the sand up in a corner etc. Once the tank has been rearranged, drop them all in together, old and new yabbies are all in new territory together and they will all settle in harmony with little fuss.