Jungle Perch to be stocked?

[Feral]

Watch out everyone, Yoyo is going to be drooling when he reads this one!

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Make an interesting addition to the dams, particularly the northern ones where there has not been much in the way of smaller fish to stock (except sootie's).

Be interesting to see if they allow stocking down as far as Brissie!

[yoyo]

hell yes !

although, i do wish they'd talk to their brothers down in NSW, who have already done this research and stocking.............

[Angus]

“A breeding program will run from November 2009 until March 2010 and the project to restore jungle perch to the wild is due for completion next June,”

Not to long to wait either?

Thats pretty awesome.

What was the traditional southern range of Sooties? Love those suckers

Angus

[Feral]

yoyo wrote:

hell yes !

although, i do wish they'd talk to their brothers down in NSW, who have already done this research and stocking.............

Thats probably the reason it is happening at all Yoyo, Captain Bligh has cut the public service budgets by so much, they are probably only doing a verification of the NSW research before implementing it. They have no funding available for any full blown new research (Threadies ya mugs!) That way the Govt will still look like a full program has been performed, with a deliverable at the end of it.

[shayned]

Feral wrote:

Watch out everyone, Yoyo is going to be drooling when he reads this one!

Please login or register to view this image

Make an interesting addition to the dams, particularly the northern ones where there has not been much in the way of smaller fish to stock (except sootie's).

Be interesting to see if they allow stocking down as far as Brissie!

Brisbane is in the natural range so the answer would be yes. They list a couple of creeks in Pumicestone as initial focus areas.

I would think a major part of this project would have been the work on the genetic side of things to ensure no damage is caused. The breeding side of things shouldn't present too much of a problem hopefully, as rumours float around concerning successful breeds by private interests. I imagine the real trick will be to develop breeding protocols which allow cost effective production of commercial quantities of JPs.

[werewolf]

Awesome! What are growth rates like though?

[yoyo]

growth rates are off the chain in stocked areas.........

there are no fishing areas up north, Paronella Park and Mossman Gorge for example, and the JP's in there are absolute stonkers compared to the open river ones i target in the tully...

[werewolf]

Could that be because they are no take species so the big ones are super old? My understanding was they were even slower growing than bream

[yoyo]

From talking to a few guys up there it's directly related to abundance of food.

The true "wild" ones live mostly in rapids/fast moving water and burn alot of energy all day long, these big boys are in pretty still water and are fed all the time...

[shayned]

For what it is worth, the first stage of this research confirmed the species range extends as far as the Richmond River NSW. So Brisbane would be covered, depending on suitability of streams.

I believe JP's outgrow Bass and Bream by a good enough margin to be considered as a possibility for aqua culture food production.

[yoyo]

pretty good eating apparently...