Spangled Perch

Spangled Man

G'day everyone. I am new to this forum, but have been doing aquaponics for quite a while. I live in Narrogin, (about 2 & 1/2 hours South East of Perth) Western Australia. I have tried a number of fish, (Silver Perch quite hardy, but grow so slow. Trout were way too fussy, which went belly up over a minor incident. Jade Perch are excellent, hardy, fast growing and btw, I've had them down to 8 degrees and survive, even tough they are supposed to die at 13 degrees.)
But I want a fish that I can breed. I believe I have found the fish that I am finally happy with, Spangled Perch. A very hardy fish that will breed in tanks. My plan is to selectively breed them for fast growth & for size. I would like to know if anyone else is interested in breeding them? Think of what we could achieve if we had a few aquaponics enthusiasts breeding them. Any one interested?

Charlie

Both spangled perch and jade perch are on the noxious list for WA. You would be/ have been breaking biosecurity laws.

joblow

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/bio ... _perch.pdf

dbird

joblow wrote:

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/biosecurity/aquatic_biosecurity_alert_spangled_perch.pdf

If you read the last part of this site it doesn't say that you can't have them in a tank ,only that you should not put them in streams where they are not present.It is stretching the truth a bit but that is how I read it .I think most fish are OK in a tank it is when you put them in a stream that the trouble starts.

Bodgy

They occur naturally in my area and after my first 'season', maybe 12 to 18 months away, I think I'll be trying them.
If only because I can catch my bag limit and feed them up at home. They may grow small and slowly but if I'm stocking two year old fish I'll have a bit of a head start. And they're free, free is good...
I'm (almost) sure it's a waste of time but so are a lot of things that I do.

Not sure I could breed them in an IBC but catching some ripe adults at the right time of year might open some possibilities. Maybe? I know raising fry is an art form and a science but it is possible. (Again qualified with a hesitant "maybe" :whistle:

).

earthbound

Don;t know why you would bother in W.A.. they are on the AquAtic Biosecurity Alert list , and generally only grow to about 20-25cm, and very bony, and very territorial.

Not really worth the effort even if they may be legal.

Spangled Man

Thanks for the replies my friends. I checked out the WA Fisheries noxious list & they are not on there; http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Sustainabilit ... -Fish.aspx They may be on a bio security alert, but they are native to W.A. So they can't do anything about you having them.
I have read numerous sites about these fish, some say they are bony, others don't mention that. Anyway, my theory is that if I can breed them to a larger size I would over come this issue (small fish would be very bony). I have never eaten them so I don't know. I am one those persons that has to find out for myself! Thanks again for for your input. Cheers, Paul.

joblow

dbird wrote:

joblow wrote:

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/biosecurity/aquatic_biosecurity_alert_spangled_perch.pdf

If you read the last part of this site it doesn't say that you can't have them in a tank ,only that you should not put them in streams where they are not present.It is stretching the truth a bit but that is how I read it .I think most fish are OK in a tank it is when you put them in a stream that the trouble starts.

Read it right through, just posting a "heads-Up", very interesting fish. :thumbright:

Mr Damage

I grew up in the Pilbara and we used to catch them in the waterholes (just for fun, not for eating), small basic spinner lures were very effective on them, they used to smash them... but I have to say in my 27 years up there I never saw one over about 20cm.

I once made the mistake of putting one in established aquarium... in a very short period of time he had eaten any fish smaller than him, and had chewed the fins of the larger fish to the point where they'd sink to the bottom and the resident yabbies would finish them off... when he ran out of fish he turned on the yabbies, first nipping their legs off a bit at a time, then flipping them over and eating their guts out... these things can EAT!

Charlie

What do they taste like, Hayden?

Mr Damage

Basically we only ever caught them for fun Charlie, we'd always been told they were bony and not worth cooking. From memory I only ever tried cooking one once when camping at Kelly's pool in Para as teenagers, but we tried cooking it black fella style... as Croc Dundee said: "You can live on it, but it tastes like sh!t"... from memory I don't think we ate it... baked bean & cheese jaffles, or braised steak & onion jaffles tasted much better... :mrgreen:

I forget to make my point in my last post... Doh!... which was... These things can EAT!... and they will eat just about anything from what I can gather, so if they got in the rivers down south here they could have a devastating effect, especially as they can interbreed with the Bar-tailed Grunter.

Bodgy

Charlie wrote:

What do they taste like, Hayden?

They're not bad at all Charlie and I've never had one from clean water, can only assume they'd be even sweeter.

Mr Damage wrote:

... These things can EAT!... and they will eat just about anything from what I can gather, so if they got in the rivers down south here they could have a devastating effect, especially as they can interbreed with the Bar-tailed Grunter.

I'll vouch for this.
In any rock pools I have found them there was NO other life to be seen.
Not fish, not insects, just a heap of voracious little perch. Typically quite small due to high competition for food and their natural size.
And yeah, they are very rare over 20cm. usually only found that size in impoundments or rivers where they can't overwhelm the other species and dominate/overpopulate.
If they aren't in your area naturally, releasing them is more than criminal. In no time they'd be pretty likely to cause local extinction of other species.

But luckily thanks to my location, none of that worries me.

So I will be getting onto this one of these years...

Mr Damage

Bodgy wrote:

I'll vouch for this.
In any rock pools I have found them there was NO other life to be seen.
Not fish, not insects, just a heap of voracious little perch.

Yep!... in the overwhelming majority of small waterholes, gorges, rock pools etc throughout the Pilbara these are the ONLY things in them. You really only see them cohabitating with other species in the very large bodies of water, especially in the large river billabongs where there is plenty of cover, plenty of food and plenty of bio-diversity... ie: Faster, meaner fish, such as Tarpon.

Moneybox

Spangled Man wrote:

:headbang: G'day everyone. I am new to this forum, but have been doing aquaponics for quite a while. I live in Narrogin, (about 2 & 1/2 hours South East of Perth) Western Australia. I have tried a number of fish, (Silver Perch quite hardy, but grow so slow. Trout were way too fussy, which went belly up over a minor incident. Jade Perch are excellent, hardy, fast growing and btw, I've had them down to 8 degrees and survive, even tough they are supposed to die at 13 degrees.)
But I want a fish that I can breed. I believe I have found the fish that I am finally happy with, Spangled Perch. A very hardy fish that will breed in tanks. My plan is to selectively breed them for fast growth & for size. I would like to know if anyone else is interested in breeding them? Think of what we could achieve if we had a few aquaponics enthusiasts breeding them. Any one interested?

It's been a few years since this post. How are you getting on with the spangled perch. We've only just started out. I think the fish are doing quite well although I've not worked out how to feed them. They are due to breed in a couple of months and I'd be a lot happier if they were eating pellets or something rather than their expected thousands of young.

We're in Cue WA but are heading down your way at the end of the week. In a way it's good that they don't need feeding because will be gone again for some time.

dbird

Hi, Spangled man in not on the forum now and is living in Bullsbrook. I have his phone number and chat with him sometimes. He brought one to me to cook and see how much meat was on it . I was surprised how much there was on it and I think if you were hungry two would be enough. I never noticed any small bones but as we didn't know how long it had been dead we did not eat it. Money box if you are coming this way feel free to drop in. I am always doing something that others say is impossible. Sometimes it works.

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Spangled Perch

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