Can I stock fish in a Yabby dam?
Farming two, or more, species in the same water is called polyculture. The principle of polyculture is that the species should eat different foods and not eat each other (predation) or otherwise harm one another, e.g. through disease. If these favourable relationships exist, more production can be harvested from a body of water than if only one of the species is farmed there. The problem in WA is finding a suitable combination of species. Many fish can’t see to feed in muddy water. Some farmers are stocking eastern states Murray-Darling fish (Murray cod, golden perch or callop, and silver perch) in their larger dams. At the moment, fingerlings need to be purchased from a disease-free eastern hatchery, with a permit to import them obtained from the Department of Fisheries. These fish eat small yabbies (which may not be bad where the Yabby stock tends to be crowded and stunted), but they can grow to large sizes and eat big yabbies, as well. How successfully these fish can be farmed in wh
