Blue Yabby

[lordo.1]

Blueish type yabby usually come from cleaner water and the one pictured looks like it has lost its claws at some stage and in the process of regrowth.It looks to have battle scars.

 

[AussieChris]

Common Cherax Destructor but yeah like everyone else said its to do with the quality of the water.
I had one for 7 years, I think there is a pic or two of him (Dozer) on the forum here, he went from babyshit brown to cobalt blue almost like a WA blue marron in the aquarium water.
I enjoyed watching him push his rocks around the tank :Y:
Was crazy to see him moult then eat his old carapace.
Prob time to grab another one.

 

[Pogo]

Plenty on the eastern side of the divide.

Used to catch them as a kid in creeks up the back of castle hill in Sydney.

Seen them in creeks in Kuringai Chase N P too

 

[Solid Luck]

I like to eat them.
I remember being a kid and a new Australian and sticking my big toe into the holes at the lakeside at Lake Eppalock. One pissed off monster came up out of the hole. Having never seen anything like that before I ran off screaming for my mummy :awful:

 

[Brumble-Gum]

There are naturally red coloured ones at Victoria Falls in the Blue Mountains NSW.
No, they are not cooked and I wasn't smoking anything at the time.
Blue me away when I saw them. Pardon the pun.

 

[shakergt]

Plenty of blue yabbies around my area

 

[mudgee hunter]

The old common dam/ creek yabby in nsw i find depend on the water quality and base/ bed.
And how recently they have shed their shell.
New dams with a clean bottom, with veg often have more distinct markings and tend to be blue to grey.
Old dams with rotting leaves etc tends to lean towards a dirty shell.
Especially the big older ones around 18cm head to tail.

 

[grubstake]

WA blue marron are now in demand as pets!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-10-29/blue-marron-demand-claws-to-record-high-prices/12822502

 

[Mossman]

I got a blue claw in Kuranda qld just like that

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Common Cherax Destructor but yeah like everyone else said its to do with the quality of the water.
I had one for 7 years, I think there is a pic or two of him (Dozer) on the forum here, he went from babyshit brown to cobalt blue almost like a WA blue marron in the aquarium water.
I enjoyed watching him push his rocks around the tank :Y:
Was crazy to see him moult then eat his old carapace.
Prob time to grab another one.

Yep, Cherax Destructor, common around most of Australian river systems.

Blue in colour from water clarity and chemical make up in the water and soil, quality of food also.
The shell pigment is altered by minerals in the environment, and algae content of the water.

Like Flamingo's you can vary their colour just by adding food dye to what you feed them too.

Yes females have a sex organ like males under the body shell, but easier is that females have 'pairs' of little fins down each side under the tail,
this is how they hold their eggs under the tail (in 'berry') like female crabs.

Males only single fins down each side under the tail.

Because of their large claws, they will only get to a certain size before becoming 'Claw bound' and unable to shed their body shell.
they will die if unable to shed and grow into the new shell hardening on the outside of the water swollen body.
The process requires them to pull their fat claws through their tiny joints, claws too big, no shedding can happen.

Marron do not have this problem, so can get to really big sizes.

Great pets to observe. Vegans too, but will scavenge anything.
A very interesting animal for farming too.

Red Claw Yabbie in QLD is a different animal, like Marron in different places, fresh water Crayfish in the Murray and Snowy's etc

I studied farming them with Fisheries in SA.

True story - a chinese woman was looking to make money farming them in her flat in aquariums, this was 35+ years ago, nice woman but soon learned it was not going to happen.