Can I keep yabbies alive for 24 hours?

[gone_phishin]

Evening all, can anyone help with keeping yabbies alive or at least fresh dead for 24 hours? I am taking the family whiting fishing Sunday but because of other commitments I won't be able to go out early Sunday morning to pump yabbiesa nd will have to do it tomorrow afternoon. I've never been able to keep them alive and healthy overnight and was just wondering if anyone here has a few tips for a rank amatuer :) :-[ :-[
Thanks in advance
Geoff

[2iar]

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just change their water as often as you can manage (you'll obviously have to bring some saltwater back at the same time). A few will cark it, but the more you change the water the less casualties you'll have.

Maybe an aerator would help?

We normally pump them when camping on Moreton. It's not one of my designated duties :D so I've never paid that much attention to what's going on and how often, but there are always a few live ones even after a couple of days.

Good luck,
Mike

[gone_phishin]

Thanks Mike, do I keep them totally underwater, with an aerator, or do I have to have sand or anything? Sorry about the dumb questions :-[ :-[ :-[
Geoff

[brett_rokesky]

Grab a big bucket or tub, so the yabbies have plenty of room.
And as Mike said bring back a bucket of saltwater with you and change the water a couple of times.
Ive never had to use an aerator but i found out the hard way with the smaller bucket caper as they need room to breath and swim around a little.
you will get a couple of dead ones for the cat.

Cheers Brett.

[gone_phishin]

Ok Brett thanks, but I'm assuming a 9litre bucket is big enough? Or when you say big with room to move, do you mean bigger still? I've only ever kept them in a bait creel with no water. Obviously this was a bad move!
Geoff

[brett_rokesky]

Ive got around a 60ltr tub( i fill it around half full).
I pump around 40 to 70 yabbies depends on the trip and i loose only around 10 to 15.

[banshee]

I use a bucket of water to collect yabbies only,when I've got enough I rinse them well in clean salt water then transfer them to a thick/heavey hessian bag that has been soaked,rinsed,partialy wrung out and folded in half,the wringing out is the tricky bit,it needs to be saturated but not driping,you should be able to put it on down without it making a mess,the yabbies will live inbetween the folded bag for quite a while,I don't know how long but I've pumped them in the arvo,fished all night and some of the next morning and let some remaining ones go in the shallows when I've had enough and they've appeared allright.If you go this way they would need to be kept cool in daylight hours the hessian would not want to dry out to much either.For short trips I have used damp newspaper instead of hessian.

[gone_phishin]

Wow! Ok, I'll have to upsize my bucket :o Thanks Brett.
Geoff

[gone_phishin]

Thanks Banshee, I've heard of that one before but not to the detail of wringing out. Would it be worth maybe refreshing the water on the bag every now and again do you think? Thanks for all this help everyone :)
Geoff

[banshee]

If it's in a tub or the like you would have to make sure you didn't end up with the botom layer geting waterloged,I've never kept them through the heat of the day this way,I think a bit of extra water is a good idea and definately try and keep them as cool as possible.

[budge]

You could also try keeping them in wood shavings, just dry them off a bit put them in the wood shavings say 10cm deep and keep in a cool shady area. I have kept them over 24hrs this way. Other than that remember the old white school desk trays primary school kids have these are good as they have a larger surface to area ratio.

[Benno75]

My dad and I used to do this when I was a kid. We'd pump yabbies friday arvo for a weekend away, and we'd still have some alive on sunday. After we'd pumped them we'd get some clean white sand and a bucket of water and news paper. Lay down a couple of sheets of paper and place a couple of handfuls of sand on the news paper, and lay about a dozen or 20 yabbies in the sand. Then pour a little water over the yabbies and sand - like banshee said, the trick is enough but not too much. You don't want to make the papper soggy. Wrap up the yabbies and keep them cool. We used to keep them in the bottom of an old beer fridge oer night, then throw them in the esky before we went. Don't let them freeze though.

I've heard the saw dust trick too, but nenver tried it.

[2DKnBJ]

Have used the wood shavings before and they lasted well into the third day.
Don.t use sawdust as it is too thich and will suffocate them.
Cheers Dazza

[Scalem]

All good advice here, but the principle is simple. The secret to keeping these guys alive is to make sure they have enough oxygen. Many people keep them in a huge bucket with heaps of water. Wrong! the experienced tackle shops that keep Jabbies usually have a tray that is very shallow, just enough to cover the Yabbie. This way, You have effectively brought the oxygen source closer to them by keeping them in shallow water. In a deep bucket with no circulation, they use the oxygen up down deep, with no avilable source of oxygen close by to replenish. Filtering it with an aquarium pump is the next step they use in the tackle shops, but a large shallow tray is better than a deep bucket full of water if you only need to keep them for 24hours.

Scalem

[Feral]

A half full 9l Bucket with an aerator kept in a cool spot should be all you need for 24hrs, changing the water once a day will keep em alive for a few days.

If your in a boat, an old 9l water bottle (cooler type) with an aerator is a great way to keep em cool and alive. Just a bit hard to see what you are doing when you still the old paw in to get ya next yabbie! (dont sunscreen the paw your sticking in the Yabbie water, some sunscreens kill em pretty quick)

[Freeeedom]

Agree with all of the above. The key points are to remove any dead or injured ones so that they don't pollute the water and to keep them cool (cold water holds more oxygen than warm water). Although it's not commonly done, they can be frozen quite successfully too. Spread them out (good whole live ones only), without any water, in a single layer in a freezer bag and then freeze them solid. To use them, drop them into water to thaw and they will absorb some of the water and plump up very nicely. Not as good as live ones, but still better than most other baits in the estuary. I always keep a few packets in the freezer so I can have a quick fish if I want to, without the need for a long trip to get yabbies.
Cheers Freeeedom

[gone_phishin]

Thanks all, no wonder I love this site! I think I'm going to try as many of these as I can this arvo and will post results. Maybe I can do this as a bit of a controlled experiment and see what the different survival rates are. Freeeedom, do you find they are mushy and don't hold to well afetr freezing or are they still good? Budge, do you mean like the wood shavings you can buy for smoking fish etc.? Feral, I have a small white foam box and lid our local supplier delivers 1 and 2 kilo packs of cooked prawns in. I assume this would be ok?
Regards
Geoff

[gone_phishin]

Thanks Scalem, this probably sounds dumb but if i had an old aquariam and filter can they be kept alive longer, ie a week or so, and is there anything you could feed them?
Geoff

[al-straddie]

I always kept them by removing dead/injured ones, then drain off eccess water. cover them with fresh, dampened, ribbon weed(washes up on foreshore) and put them in a shady cool area. Seemed to last ok for me ;)

Cheers..... 8-)

[frankj]

Try putting salt on a few before freezing. never done it myself but it works with other bait and usually toughens it up too.

Don't foreget to publish the results.

Cheers
Frank

[gone_phishin]

Stacks of ribbon weed up the creeks here so I'll give that one a try too Al-straddie, and post results. Looks like I've given myself a job Frank :( :( ;D
Geoff

[frankj]

Consider it a service to mankind.

You'll love it.
:) :)

Frank

[finding_time]

You could also try keeping them in wood shavings, just dry them off a bit put them in the wood shavings say 10cm deep and keep in a cool shady area. I have kept them over 24hrs this way. Other than that remember the old white school desk trays primary school kids have these are good as they have a larger surface to area ratio.

This is spot on!! Two thing to remember (1) use clean pine wood shavings hard wood and treated wood is bad (2) large surface area is important.

We used some large pans with about 60 yabbies in each pan, lightly wet the shavings with clean sea water and cover with a moist potato sack and store under the house. keep adding moisture to both the sack and shavings so they done dry out and your yabbies will last for many days ( at least 4 days)

[NeilD]

I have kept yabbies for several days in shallow containers with about 0.5 cm of water and kept in the fridge or esky. A couple of water changes daily and remove the dead/soft ones regularly. They come back OK when they warm up again.

Neil

[gone_phishin]

Thanks for that finding_time, I picked up some pine shavings this am so will give that a try. I'm assuming from your post about fridges and esky's Horse, that their metabolism must slow down sufficiently when kept cold to just keep their little bods ticking over :-?.
Geoff

[bungie]

Just keep them between sheets of damp newspaper. Believe it or not I was told by an old timer that they drown if you keep them in water. Just keep them damp and cool

[Freeeedom]

Freeeedom, do you find they are mushy and don't hold to well afetr freezing or are they still good? Regards
Geoff

No, they come up quite well. Because their skeleton is on the outside any mushy tissue is internal. As long as they are not damaged when they are frozen they will be fine and very useable. But if they were dead when frozen they are hopeless and not worth the effort
Cheers Freeeedom

[gone_phishin]

Wouldn't you know it. Took everyones advice, got everything ready to do the big experiment, and the Minister decided she wanted to go fishing yesterday instead of today :( So will try all these out next weekend and post reports. Yabbies went down a treat on the whiting and bream ;)
Thanks all and I WILL post results
Geoff

[Scalem]

Geoff,

My guess is that Yabbies are like any other crustacean. If I said yes, keep them in an aquarium with a filter and they die, then my answer has been incorrect...... or is it? You have to consider all the other variables like amonia/Nitrate/Nitrite, PH, population... etc etc I am keeping a salt tank, recently converting it from fresh. I was at a local aquarium shop to grab a couple of snails to clean the glass ( regular kreepy crawly of the tank, they do a great job!) and the sales guyadvised me of all the other things that you need to consider when keeping a salt water animal alive. Too complex for this post, but the short answer is that I think it is possible with a good quality filter than turns a fair bit of water over such as a power filter, not the box filter that blows bubbles through the top. I would not worry about feeding them, fish can last weeks without food, Yabbies should last a week without food I guess...

Scalem

[gone_phishin]

Hmmm...interesting scalem, I have been thinking about converting to salt as well, so worst case scenario, if I did this and somehow protected them from the fish, given that everything else stays equal as far as nitrates etc. so that the saltwater fish live happily, it must be theoretically possible to maintain yabbies....now we're really heading down the technical street. Soon I'll be cloning them and using their eggs for stem cell research and all ;D ;D ;D. Maybe I should stick to what you and all these other great people have been telling me, and just go fishing after pumping some fresh yabbies and keep the leftovers for a few days max ::)

Thanks all
Geoff

[Bros]

I had the same question a while ago and I was told just a small amount of salt water in a big flat container just enough to cover the yabbie and pick out any of the dead ones. I kept them alive for a couple of days. Seems as it there are plenty of ways to do it

[bazz]

I have kept yabbies alive for 6 days by cleaning them in salt water and discard all the week moving one's. Then place ice bottle water in a esky and then use a sheet of ply or aluminum with small holes drilled in the sheet to let the cold through the sheet but not the yabbies. then place a layer of wood shaving's not sawdust onto the board place about 50 yabbies then more shavings and more yabbies and so on. But make sure the yabbies are not wet let the air dry them for a few minutes. A few years ago a lot of fisho's used yabbies in the dam's but as most peple now know you are not aloud as far as i know.

Bazz

[gone_phishin]

G'day Bros and bazz. Is that true about yabbies in dams ?? :-? :-? I hadn't heard that before. Is this a DPI ruling or something. Showing my ignorance again :-[
Geoff

[Bros]

Geoff as far as I know there are restrictions on the use of freshwater yabbies in dams but I don't think there is any as far as saltwater yabbies are concerned but I could be wrong.

There are restrictions on using red claw in various river systems and dams but that has been ignored and they are right throughout Queensland now.

[d-man]

You can increase the time between water changes by keeping the yabs in a second bucket with lots of small holes (about 4 to 6 mm) drilled in it inside the water bucket. This works like a seive and any yabby crap and other solids fall through the holes. I've kept them alive for several days using this trick. As everyone else said though, you have to pick out the dead and dying ones. Don't let any fresh water (like rain) into the bucket or they'll all turn their little yabby toes up and cark it.

[bazz]

I have just got a phone call back from DPI to say that you can use salt water yabbies in the fresh water dam's.

Bazz :)

[gone_phishin]

Ok next question Bazz :) Are they any good for using in the dams 'cause of their size? and what would you target with them in the dams?

Regards
Geoff

[bazz]

I have caught most fresh water fish on them in Somerset, Boondoomba, B.P. dam and others. Sometimes you will find that you can catch fish on salt water yabbies only an not shrimp's, why that is i do not know i can only tell you that it works, i take off the claws thow and if i have not got a bite for a while i move. It works for me and a lot of others, this is a good bait in dam's when you can not get Shrimp. I use bait when i can not get fish on lures or if in a comp as you can not out fish some one useing bait against lures.

Bazz :)

[LizardWizard]

common sense will explain everything...

1. when was the last time you saw a "school" of yabbies just floating around in the water?
A: NEVER... it does not happen because they make homes in sand/mud that is fed by naturally FILTERED and AERATED water.

2. when was the last time you found yabbies living in sand?
A: ALWAYS... because thats the NATURAL environment.

so the answer is.. keep yabbies in damp sand, NOT in a bucket of water