Finnis Cherobin Prawns

[Jewmaster]

These prawns where caught in the landing net, to give a idea of size, the smaller Barra is 55cm. Im alergic to prawns and had to give them to my dad, he wasn;t complaining mind.

[Fitzy]

Hi Jewmaster,
Please forgive my ignorance, but where is the Finnis River?

Cheers,

Fitzy..

[Jewmaster]

THE HOME OF THE GREAT SWEETHEART. The croc that ate boat motors. The Finnis River runs into Fog Bay Darwin NT. It can be acessed by the Dundee Beach Road, turning down hardcastle road to the public boat ramp for the fresh water end where the prawns where caught. And you can also launch at the Dundee Beach Boat ramp and head to the mouth which is 10nm away. The entrance to the mouth is dangerous and I haven;t attempted to enter it yet. Shallow 4 to 5 feet of water for about 1nm around the mouth, very choppy with patches of rock.

[Rumpig]

Those things are HUGE!!!!!!! they look about the same size as the smallest barra! how big do they get?

Mick

[Jewmaster]

Thats the biggest I have ever seen them alive, I have found several shells over time that where huge. They take a long time to grow because I have caught one about 1.5cm long and kept it in a tank for a year and it grew to be about 3cm long, was hoping that I could grow them effectivly in captivity but they grow too slow.

[swano]

hey there jewie the buggars are probably like the southern fresh water yabby , you have to keep changing the water for them or they dont expand. i've had a breeding pair in a 4ft tank for 2 years, got three batches off her , and every time i drain it and put the 240 or so young fellas into my mates dam , the adults seem to grow another inch and they get bluer . so now i have a bathtub with about 4 inches of water and 2 airaters and heaps of 5inch lengths of 25mm conduit in it and can grow out smaller yabbies in about 2 months to bait size(approx 50-70mm)just by feeding them carrots and changing the water often p/s i put a water heater in the tank in the colder months this stimulates there growth

[Jewmaster]

I'll have to give it a go, I don't know that my girlfriend will let me take over her bath tub, Currently trying to get sleepy cod to breed, each tie they lay eggs they eat them straight away, Ineed a spare tank to move them too.
My dadas mate grows yabbies and he grows a vine into the water and finds that they eat this and it doesn;t mess up the water, might be good for your mates dam, not sure what type of vine he grows.

[Muzzy]

cheripin (sp) are pretty hard to breed and keep. they are a prawn too more than a yabbie. The problem with them is they dont like to share space, I believe they need to be in indervidual cages etc etc or they fight and die.

redclaw on the other hand will pile up on top of each other and love every second. They are more like the yabbie from down south.

Big ones for eating and the smaller ones for fishing, they are to nice to feed a barra. Better eating than barra in my book is a cheripin (again sp?)

can I ask why you would want to breed a sleepy cod? or is it just to see if ya can do it?

Muz

[Jewmaster]

I ended up with a pair from a yabbie trap and kept them in the ank,after being in the tank ofr a couple of days they took on blue markings on all of the edges of there fins and the female, which is the largest by far has blue stipes forming on her face, find them attractive fish and are good in the tank, they are very territorial and will kill anything else put in there with them, even freshwater crabs. Much to my girlfriends dimay as it was her tank i put them in. Now they are the only 2 fish left.

Basically to see if I can, not putting any effort into breeding them, they are keen as on there own. I prefer having local fish in my tank, but you can;t go and catch them for that purpose, it would be nice if they would breed and I could give some to my mates.