There's a monster in our dam!

[dragonblade71]

I was hanging around one of the dams in my folk's rural property in South Australia when something rose to the surface and then retreated back into the water. So I set up a video camera to capture the`creature on tape. The first day of recording was not successful. However, on the second day, the monster emerged again....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcco-NcRCuE

 

[cacoseraph]

whoa


how big is that thing?

 

[super-pede]

nice yabbie

 

[dragonblade71]

cacoseraph: "how big is that thing?"

I would say close to the size of my hand. The claws were especially large. A real monster!

 

[zonbonzovi]

haha...looks like he needs a little Beano. :}

 

[Teal]

And folks wonder why I won't venture into water I can't see into...!

lol

 

[Beardo]

Hah, very cool video. I had no idea what to expect.

 

[cacoseraph]

And folks wonder why I won't venture into water I can't see into...!

lol

i'm pretty much with you there. i guess i know nothing too bad could get me where i live... but it just does not feel right =P


i think that makes it probably ~30-50% bigger than the biggest crawdad i have seen here. i think we might have some bigger ones than i have seen... not sure though. can you "fish" for these ones like we can? tie a piece of hotdog, chicken, whatever to a string and get them to grab on. good times as a kid

does that hole filled with water like, go somewhere?

 

[dragonblade71]

zonbonzovi: "haha...looks like he needs a little Beano."

Lol perhaps that product isn't available over here. When I looked it up on Google, I laughed.

cacoseraph: "can you "fish" for these ones like we can? tie a piece of hotdog, chicken, whatever to a string and get them to grab on. good times as a kid"

Yea, we usually use a yabbie net over here with bait and they just crawl inside. However, I'm hesitant about catching this one. It looks like it's a single individual that keeps coming up to the surface for brief periods of time. Cos Ive seen 'him' so many times, it's almost like Ive gotten to know 'him', if it is indeed a 'he'. I might feel guilty. On the other hand, this species can be quite destructive to dams as they will dig very deep burrows into the bottom soil during drought.

"does that hole filled with water like, go somewhere?"

It's right on the edge of the dam. I'm assuming that it connects with the dam below the surface (probably something like a U-shaped tunnel.) The intriguing thing is that there is a kind of an external structure around this hole. A circular mud wall can be seen around one side of the hole. I'm assuming that a yabbie/crawdad do not build such things. I thought they just burrowed but I could be wrong.

Not far from this hole, there is another mud structure close to the edge of the dam. I saw this one being built in stages but never saw what was actually making it. In the early stages, it looked very similar to the yabbie hole seen in the video (but with a complete wall of mud surrounding it.) A day later, it was a mound of mud...similar to a termite mound. I'll try and upload some photos.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Sure that thing isn't dead and you pushed it through the hole?

 

[Moltar]

Eeks! It's the monster from Cloverfield!

 

[GartenSpinnen]

When I watched that I was just waiting for one of those scare hoaxes where something jumps out and scares the pee out of me!

Needless to say, it was a pretty cool video. I like the coloration on that crayfish, very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cacoseraph]

oh yeah, i didn't mean to catch that one! i really like having "wild pets" like that! i was just wondering if some aussie kids basically do what some USAmerican kids do, too



aaahhh. that makes sense that it would be connected to a bigger body of water. very cool.

ha, i kinda like it when i come across some animal living somewhere and one of my first thoughts is, "i *know* you didn't make all of this"

thanks for the thread, dude

 

[dragonblade71]

Thanks all!

cacoseraph: "oh yeah, i didn't mean to catch that one! i really like having "wild pets" like that! i was just wondering if some aussie kids basically do what some USAmerican kids do, too"

Oh definitely! Just as popular over here!

"aaahhh. that makes sense that it would be connected to a bigger body of water. very cool."

Ah...to be honest, I'm not really sure if that is the case....I could be wrong. It could well simply be a burrow that goes almost straight down (at an angle.) Then again, since it is filled with water, perhaps it is connected to the dam. I wouldn't want to stick my hand down there to find out!

 

[galeogirl]

Nice! I'd love to have a couple of those in a tank.

 

[pouchedrat]

awww.. I want one, lol. Used to have crayfish long ago but they weren't that terribly big.

 

[loxoscelesfear]

pretty cool. some of the burrowing species in the U.S. get pretty big too.

 

[Galapoheros]

Nice! Aus has the biggest species in the world, over 2ft! Makes me want to go crawdad hunting in e tx. Tiny here compared to that thing though.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Nice! Aus has the biggest species in the world, over 2ft! Makes me want to go crawdad hunting in e tx. Tiny here compared to that thing though.

that thing measures about 5 inhes in lengh, so its a tad bit under the 2ft claim there

 

[ZergFront]

Nice! I'd love to have a couple of those in a tank.

Make sure to have good water circulation when you do. I had 4 adults (they were red though) and the tank stank even though the uneaten food was removed.