Yabbies

Last Saturday did the aquarium shop circuit with my "Princess" and "Only Daughter" to check out what is available in the tropical fish market. My Princess bought a pair of round funny looking goldfish for her fish bowl. She bought a bottom filter too because the mortality rate in her fish bowl is really high. I was really taken up with the Yabbies, they really look delicious and interesting at the same time like little lobsters .......... hehe!!!

The next day, together with my wife we went to the aquarium shop to get some aquatic plants and guess what we got? ....... three yabbies and a bunch of aquatic plants .... I was overjoyed. When introduced into the fountain tank, all three make a straight line to hide under the large pot. After I planted the plants and while admiring the fountain, I noticed all three yabbies in a single file came out from their hiding place to explore the tank. The moment they noticed me, zoom they were back in their hiding place or should I say their safety zone.

Later I took a walk down the road to our neighbourhood aquarium shop to get five pairs of neon tetras. I really like neon tetras and when I had my first aquarium ages ago I had a pair of them. I am always fascinated with the neon stripe across body and they look so pleasant. I also got a packet of shrimps to eat any left over food in the crevices where all the other larger inhabitants could not reach, yes they are some kind of a clean up crew.

It is indeed a pleasant sight to have some life in the tank making the fountain more lively. I sat there for a good while observing the fishes, the shrimps and once in awhile the yabbies will stick their head out to take a peep.

Yesterday morning the plants were all uprooted and the fishes were no where to be seen. The number of shrimps were also greatly reduced ........... what happened? My wife checked too and could not see any fish at all. The yabbies???? They are still around ......... are they guilty?? Checked the Internet and found the yabbies are scientifically classified as Cherax destructor, they are destructive alright. They are very guilty of making the fishes, shrimps disappear and uprooting the plants.

This morning we decided that the yabbies must go .......... cook them?!? too small and only three so nope. Release them into a lake?? a big NO NO cause they are not native here. They must go if we want to have fish in our tank and finally we decided to give it back to the shop. We bought some fishes from the shop and were very pleasantly surprised that the shop keeper gave us a full refund for the yabbies. Once again the tank is lively...... :)