What happens when yabbies are put in a farm dam that doesn dry up?
They go through the same population explosion as in the wild and reach very high numbers, particularly of juveniles, in a year, or two. In crayfish, and many other animals and plants, growth is closely related to their density (number per unit area) or degree of crowding. As density increases, growth slows dramatically and survival at moulting (see below) is poor, so the throughput to larger (marketable) sizes is low. However, breeding does not seem to slow. This overpopulation, or crowding, is currently seen as the central problem to be overcome in Yabby farming, so as to increase production of larger sized yabbies in a dam.
