Fish'n'kids home Did you know? Eastern blue groper Grey nurse shark Silver perch Murray crayfish

Our body is dark olive green and we have powerful, cream-coloured claws. We're really spiney, making it hard for you to hold us. We grow to around 30 cm and weigh around 1 kg. The biggest Murray crayfish recorded was 3.5 kg and probably around 50 years old. We're the second biggest freshwater crayfish in the world. The biggest is the Tasmanian freshwater crayfish with one weighing a record 6.3 kg. We grow slowly and become adults when we're about six to seven years of age. Check out this picture of a Murray crayfish. Click on it for a bigger image. We feed mainly on aquatic plant matter that is decaying and also eat dead fish and other animals. Murray cod and golden perch eat us.

Murray crayfish breed once a year at the end of autumn. The female keeps the fertilised eggs under her tail for 4-6 months. When the juveniles have hatched they stay with their mother and moult (shed their shell) twice before leaving her. We're found in the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, many of their tributaries and in some dams. We're only active in the cooler months. You won't see many of us from December to May.

You can catch up to five of us from May to August each year but we must be at least 9cm in length and you can only catch one longer than 12cm. You can't catch us for the rest of the year. In trout notified waters, you can't catch us at any time of the year. If females are carrying eggs, you're not allowed to keep them. You have to return them to the water immediately so our lifecycle can continue.