Averaging 10-15cm in length and up to 100gm in weight, yabbies can be found in a variety of colours - from brown to more typically blue with red appendages.

More active in the warmer months, they live in both temporary and permanent waters, and can tolerate relatively high temperatures and low oxygen levels.

Although yabbies generally eat particles of rock or other matter (detritus), they will catch and eat small animals, including other yabbies. Also eaten is the exoskeleton that they shed during growth.

Females may carry eggs from October to March.