Do they die often during moulting?
Yabbies are very vulnerable during moulting; most crayfish deaths occur while they’re sluggish just before or after ecdysis or defenseless at ecdysis – they get stuck trying to emerge from the old shell or they’re attacked by other crayfish or a predator. A Yabby on its side in shallow water is usually moulting; sometimes what you see is the old empty shell; if not, if you wait a few minutes the “new” Yabby will emerge. Don’t disturb or handle an ecdysing yabbie; they can’t breathe at this stage and any delay means they run out of puff before finishing. Small crayfish ecdyse in a few minutes but very big ones can take 20 minutes, or longer.
