Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Macquaria ambigua, otherwise known as Golden Perch/Yellowbelly/Callop

Last month Himzol and I placed an order for 100 GP from Aquablue Seafoods http://www.aquablueseafoods.com.au/golden-perch.shtml
There's a fair bit of info on their website and the net. The bloke I spoke to said that he didn't know much about aquaponics but would recommend SP for AP, and GP for dams. But I decided to go for the GP for a few reasons;
1. someone said they were better eating
2. dont have to be purged
3. will survive a broad temperature range
4. will eat at lower temps than SP, hence giving a longer growing season than SP in the Adelaide climate
5. got sick of waiting for Monya to get his order
6. and as Monya said "you just have to be different dont ya!"
They were a little more expensive than SP, $80/100 compared with $60/100. Total cost including pacaging, freight and GST was $121.
If successful I plan to add an extra growbed and order 50 every year to keep my fish stock at 50-100 at any one time and maintain only ony species. If unsuccessful I'll probably go back to trout over 8 months and just a few SP over summer.
Fish are being posted tomorrow (Tuesday) and will arrive either Thursday or Friday. Will post pics as I get them...

You know that you're looking at a two year grow out to about 600 - 700gms??

Based on what information? everything I've read has had the growth rate based in farm dams where they are pretty much on their own as far as finding food.

A friend of mine did keep one in an aquarium once, and that grew very quickly (other fish disapeared just as quick )

I guess if it does take that long then so be it,

H.

I think monya posted a picture of them for me a while back. Those things are monsters. Good luck with them.

Have these already been trained for pellets ? If not, I'd be interested to hear how you go about training them. Apparently, they are hard to train and losses can be high during the transition.

derek

Aslo - there are suggestions (for Sleedy Cod at least) that those trained to pellets may lose that training in the move to their new location??

I had this to eat a couple of months ago. That's in a full size baking dish.
Tasted great! Even the fatty bits I was told wouldn't be so good were nice.

weighed in at 3.2kg after gutting... mmmm mmm. course you wont be growing them that big I wouldn't imagine...

Nice looking fish KP. I'd be happy with a few half that size.
Yeah they are supposed to be trained onto pellets before they are shipped out, but the man reckons that there will be a few losses as they are carnivorous and would prefer to be in a dam eating insects and yabbies. But it is an experiment after all, and I'll probably end up trying other foods like diced heart, worms, etc. if they go off the pellets.
As Himzol says, there's not alot of info about growth rates in RAS.

Couple of articles.....

Weaning golden perch fingerlings

General Info

KEII.... I'll check the growout info, can't find the article at the moment ...

But from memory it was along the lines that....

Initial growth was very good up to about 300gms but very uneven with 25-30% of the fingerlings stunted or dead....

Growth then slowed dramatically and took 15 - 18 months to reach 600gm..... might have been a dam stock system...

[s]I'll find[/s] Found it..... Golden Perch Research

Look at "Growout".... and yes it seems to be "pond" related

Thanks Rupert,

I read the same thing a while back, there are other papers available and all seem to deal with stocking in grow out ponds where there is other food availabe so they tend to move away from pellet feed as well.



KE, I just read a document ( think it may be from PIRSA) that indicated they were not canabalistic so this may be in our favour. I will try and re-find that document.

H

Wouldn't bet on it Himzol.... I've fished for a lot of Bass and Yellowbelly with lures.....

If a fish will take a lure, you can be gauranteed it'll take a fish in it's natural state

Ahh... here we go....

There is no way I'm going to disagree with you on this one . caught too many fish with smaller ones inside them to think otherwise.

However this paper (found it)https://www.was.org/Documents/MeetingPresentations/WA2005/WA2005-100.pdf

seems to indicate differently.

Perhaps they won't eat their siblings but a new batch comes along..look out. specially if the growth rates are the same-ish..

H.

Thanks for the link Himzol.....

Interesting that they will go off the pallets in preference to natural foods.... in ponds/dams anyway.....

Wonder what they'd go like if you supplemented pallet feed with some grubs and bugs... like BSF maybe??

I know QFI is continuing to do a lot of research work with Golden Perch...

I think they see the potential as rivaling or even replacing Barra as an aquaculture fish in RAS systems.... mainly because of the temp and pH tolerances....

Perch are probably different, but I understand that pellet-trained trout prefer pellets to live food -- and even when stocked in ponds (or dams in Oz) they will hit lures that look like pellets.

The fish have arrived, but not the 50mm as I had expected, more like 25-40. I found about 4 dead ones in the bag, but there should have been about 8 extras anyway.
Very dissappointed with the transport company as well. Box had been broken open. Delivery was meant to be signed for but instead they have left it on the front step and drove away. It was about 41C here today, and if my friend hadn't found the box they would have all been cooked.