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Euastacus Australasiensis

The Sidney Spiny Crayfish
Euastacus Australasiensis

Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Family:     Parastacidae
Genus:     Euastacus
Species:     Euastacus Australasiensis

Local Name : The Sidney Spiny Crayfish, Smooth Sydney Crayfish, Sydney Crayfish, Sydney Spiny Crayfish, Sydney Cray

Habitat : These cray fish can be found in the Sydney area to Wollongong and The Blue Mountains. Located in the Nepean River, Cox River and as well as many of their tributaries. Sydney area, New South Wales, Australia

Size in Natural : 9 centimetres

Distribution
Euastacus australasiensis extends 110 km along the coast from Ourimbah south through Sydney to the Bulli Pass, 10 km north of Wollongong, and west into the Blue Mountains area from the Newnes Plateau south to the Kanangra Boyd National Park. Its range is drained by small coastal streams including tributaries of the Hawkesbury and Port Hacking Rivers, and in higher country by tributaries of the Grose and Coxs River. The species was collected from altitudes between 50 m and 1100 m a.s.l.

Habitat
The dominant geology of the area is sandstone and granite with some conglomerates and the vegetation primarily eucalypt and heath forest with occasional patches of temperate rainforest. Some areas have been largely cleared. Most of the streams are permanent, fed by springs. The species was collected from under rocks and from burrows in both open and shaded stretches of streams.

Mostly seen in bright red to dark brown body, the chalae is usually the same colour as the body. The Smooth Sydney crayfish can grow over the N.S.W/New South Wales legal size of 9 cm, In New South Wales a recreational license is required to fish for spiny crayfish and rules apply to fishers including bag and size limits and the use of  legal fishing gear.

Euastacus Australasiensis Maps