Not enough meat on them to be bothered IMHO. Better off farming giant freshwater prawns. Added advantages - there is an established local market for them.

There is on the Redclaw from FNQ & Darwin, HM has invested quite a fair amount of cash in the CM camp.

Can anyone tell me how to keep the water for redclaws clean enough for them to do well ?

I have read they require relatively clean water, dirty as in muddy is ok, but not as in slimy and smelly.

Then I have read they feed on rotting vegetation.

So, how do you provide rotting vegetaion and clean water at the same time in small tanks, large dams and ponds I can understand, but smaller tanks cannot.

My main worry would be losing them all in the wet season from the flooding. They also go walkabout in rain.

It's a good idea though, I wouldn't mind stocking a dam up with them too.

Brings back plenty of childhood memories sitting on the edge of a dam with a lump of meat on a string and a scoop made from chicken wire.

Later in life i would throw a dredge type wire scoop into the middle of the dam and drag it back with a rope. Always guaranteed 10 each throw and plenty of fishing bait.

We would store them in an old concrete wash basin with long grass and a wet hessian bag as a cover. They will stay alive for a week if needed.

That is exactly my memory too at my uncle's farm in Bathurst, NSW. Yabbies.

I asked about them in a recent post about an orange coloured dam.

I think they would be a good idea....but considering the potential for ecological disaster....surely it is better to go through proper channels. If that is expensive, so be it......form a cooperative to bring in brood stock. I'd be interested.

The guy I knew in the Pak Chong area who kept Yabbies in concreate containers, always had the water crystal clear ... and changed it on a regular basis, and thats about all I know about them. If I remember correctly he also seperated the male from the female once she was carrying eggs. Food - he fed them from scrap food from the kitchen.

Although I love eating Yabbies, I think I much prefer eating the Giant Fresh Water prawns. Also the better half knows about prawns and although she has eaten Yabbies in Australia - which she helped catch on the brother-in-laws farm there - still prefers prawns. Found the attached info booklet on Fresh Water Farming (can't remember where now) for your general reading and information.

Fresh_Water_an_Farming_manual_2003.pdf