queensland Offshore Mooloolaba Last Week **nerdy Fish Science Stuff Added

[Andrew_P]

Headed out from Mooloolaba last week in some nicer weather. Well it might have been a bit too nice as the fish weren’t playing the game! Fished hard all day for a couple of tuskies, Maori cod, Moses, a nice snapper and the biggest hussar I’ve ever seen!

Between 6 of us on two boats we kept about 20 reefies for the day. 

Conditions were so nice my spearo mate was foaming at the mouth to jump in, even after we saw a decent shark on one of the spots! 

Brilliant day on the water nonetheless. 

Mmmm fish tacos!

[Luvit]

Never seen such a big Hussar or Moses. Some of the best eating fish going around. Looking forwards to Winter reefies. Don’t see those conditions much off Mooloolaba often. 

[aussie123]

That is a nice Hussar.

I have not seen many of the Brown Hussar down this way.

[Poddymullet]

Jesus!!! They are monsters! How goes the fish taco my friend

[Andrew_P]

8 hours ago, Luvit said:

Never seen such a big Hussar or Moses. Some of the best eating fish going around. Looking forwards to Winter reefies. Don’t see those conditions much off Mooloolaba often. 

The photo bends the truth a bit

the hussar was 50cm when we measured it on the boat, the Moses was 44cm. 

[Andrew_P]

7 hours ago, aussie123 said:

That is a nice Hussar.

I have not seen many of the Brown Hussar down this way.

It’s a yellow striped hussar, but the stripe looks brown in that photo for some reason. I sent a pic to the Queensland Museum ichthyologist and he’d never seen one so big. It was tall and thick and looked like a largemouth nannygai!

[Andrew_P]

6 hours ago, Poddymullet said:

Jesus!!! They are monsters! How goes the fish taco my friend

Delicious!

[Drop Bear]

Nice fish! Well done. Cracking feed even if a bit slow. Those Moses are such good eating. Yum! 

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Andrew_P said:

It’s a yellow striped hussar, but the stripe looks brown in that photo for some reason. I sent a pic to the Queensland Museum ichthyologist and he’d never seen one so big. It was tall and thick and looked like a largemouth nannygai!

Very cool. 

[Andrew_P]

This is the biggest hussar I’ve heard about. 54cm. Almost a legal red emperor!

 

[benno573]

bests my pb by 1cm on the hussar mate, that is a deadset horse.  Given slow growth rate of them I would guess that fish could be 30+ yrs old!

i love big moses perch to cook whole on the bbq.  get some crackers out off rainbow beach, haven't seen many bigger models off mooloolaba.

with conditions like that any fish would just be a bonus. 

 

[Andrew_P]

1 hour ago, benno573 said:

bests my pb by 1cm on the hussar mate, that is a deadset horse.  Given slow growth rate of them I would guess that fish could be 30+ yrs old!

i love big moses perch to cook whole on the bbq.  get some crackers out off rainbow beach, haven't seen many bigger models off mooloolaba.

with conditions like that any fish would just be a bonus. 

 

Good point @benno573 I kept the frames for crab bait so I’ll take the ear bones out and have a look how old it might be!

[Drop Bear]

20 minutes ago, Andrew_P said:

Good point @benno573 I kept the frames for crab bait so I’ll take the ear bones out and have a look how old it might be!

Nice one. How do you do this? 

[Andrew_P]

@Drop Bear I’ll take some pics of the process. When I’m not fishing or parenting I dabble in a bit of science on the side

[jon]

Horse hussar mate I’ve never seen one that big well done!

[kmcrosby78]

Cracking hussar and moses mate and those fish tacos look the goods!!

[AFO]

Great report

[tugger]

Some quality fish in the box just in time for easter 

[Andrew_P]

Ok my mate Tyson whipped the ear bones (called otoliths) out of the Moses and hussar today. Otoliths are like our ear bones - they help fish stay upright in the water and hear sounds. You might have heard or seen the “jewels” from mulloway - these are their otoliths. They come in all shapes, sizes and thicknesses depending upon the type of fish’s habitat and behaviours. 

They sit in a cavity under the brain (slightly behind and above the top of the eye) so depending on the species of fish you can access them from the top (by scalping the fish) or from underneath. For the hussar and Moses Tyson cut away the gills and went from underneath. 

We use bone cutters to prise open the cavity, and the otoliths can be plucked with some fine tweezers. 

Some species’ otoliths (ie mackerel, tailor, bream) can be viewed whole under a microscope, but fish like snapper, pearl perch, mulloway, red emperor, Moses and hussar need to be set in a block of polyester resin and a thin slice cut using a low speed saw. The slice is then mounted on a slide and viewed under a microscope. 

The otolith displays growth rings (like in the trunk of a tree) and show periods of fast growth (wide, clear material) and slow growth (narrow, opaque rings) that corresponds with annual cycles. There’s a bit of science to determine whether a fish species lays down annual rings, but generally this applies for most fish. 

So now we have the otoliths of these two fish out, we have a bit more work putting them in blocks and slicing them before we can estimate their age. 

I’ll post the next steps as I get round to them. 

[Andrew_P]

Video of the extraction

[Andrew_P]

Some more pics

[Andrew_P]

So here’s a bit of interesting info. In my report I said the hussar measured 50cm on the boat. In the lab the frame measured 48cm total length. Fish do shrink after death, especially when placed on ice. There have been numerous studies done in Australia showing this, including on Qld species like coral trout. Fish can shrink around 2cm in the first 48 hours. Cool hey!

[Drop Bear]

14 hours ago, Andrew_P said:

So here’s a bit of interesting info. In my report I said the hussar measured 50cm on the boat. In the lab the frame measured 48cm total length. Fish do shrink after death, especially when placed on ice. There have been numerous studies done in Australia showing this, including on Qld species like coral trout. Fish can shrink around 2cm in the first 48 hours. Cool hey!

That is interesting. I will try and make sure I only take ones 2cm over legal size. So tempting when they are just over and its been quiet and you are hungry...

 

[Drop Bear]

15 hours ago, Andrew_P said:

Video of the extraction

1EB94D3B-1267-4B88-AD51-F9B32D2AE3EF.movFB76155B-A728-45A0-A355-9F93CD0742DC.mov

Is that the spine or the otoliths coming out? either way i am intimidated by those cutters!! 

[Andrew_P]

@DropBear it’s the top of the spine where it meets the skull. Love the cracking sound

[Junky]

Geez, only 6:18am and already I've learnt enough for 5 days. 

What a great thread. Be interested to see the results reg the age. 

 

 

Never eaten hussar, always traded them in but that one would yeald some nice fillets.  

That Moses looks like a beast. I wouldn't have let out the camera trick secret. 

[Drop Bear]

On 19/04/2019 at 11:58 AM, Andrew_P said:

@DropBear it’s the top of the spine where it meets the skull. Love the cracking sound

haha yep brutal

 

[Drop Bear]

On 20/04/2019 at 6:25 AM, Junky said:

Geez, only 6:18am and already I've learnt enough for 5 days. 

What a great thread. Be interested to see the results reg the age. 

 

 

Never eaten hussar, always traded them in but that one would yeald some nice fillets.  

That Moses looks like a beast. I wouldn't have let out the camera trick secret. 

I love to eat hussar but you make a very fine point. They must make awesome live baits. Knowing my luck I would just get a grey suit. 

[Andrew_P]

Update: we’ve let the otoliths dry out for three weeks or so, and blocked them (one of each species) in polyester resin. The drying makes the rings more obvious. The reason we block them is so we can cut a section through the centre of the otolith with a low speed saw without crushing the otolith material.

Two more weeks for the resin to harden then we will cut the sections. I’ll put some pics up of the rest of the process. 

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Andrew_P
Photo added

[The Mad Hughesy]

what a fascinating process, looking forward to the results

[benno573]

should we start a sweeps on the age of the 2 fish?

I reckon hussar 36yrs and moses 32yrs.

 

Very cool process though mate, thanks for sharing.

[Andrew_P]

53 minutes ago, benno573 said:

should we start a sweeps on the age of the 2 fish?

I reckon hussar 36yrs and moses 32yrs.

 

Very cool process though mate, thanks for sharing.

Ha! We’ve all had a guess here at work

 

[REEL ADDICT]

Love the science on this Andrew, really interested to see the result!

[Junky]

Hussar 39. 

Moses. 26. 

[Junky]

Just had another look at your cat. I love KC's. 

Do you lose rods at any time out of the rocket launchers when travelling?  Man they're racked back. Been in plenty of kevla's and never noticed the launchers to be so raked. I know they ride smooth as silk so this may be your saving grace. 

 

My mates old reef boss had launchers like that and rough weather they would bounce out. I always left my rods on the deck when travelling.

Must also find it difficult to cast without a collision of rods. 

[Andrew_P]

@Junky that’s my mate’s boat. I haven’t fished out of it yet - I took the photo from the other boat. Yeah they look pretty raked back now you mention it. He travels with his rods on the deck so don’t think he’s lost any yet. Bound to be some sword crossing with 4 guys on a boat!

[Drop Bear]

On 14/05/2019 at 1:02 PM, benno573 said:

should we start a sweeps on the age of the 2 fish?

I reckon hussar 36yrs and moses 32yrs.

 

Very cool process though mate, thanks for sharing.

M 15

H  18

[Ge_off]

Very nice fish Andrew, you guys have done well, i'm envious, thanks for sharing.

[Andrew_P]

It’s been a while but the otoliths have been sectioned. Pics below.

Moses:

 

Hussar:

I estimate the number of growth rings for the Moses at 28 or 29 and hussar at 33 or 34. If each ring represents one year of growth then they are both old fish!

 

89532590-4100-4464-9444-A58A8ED7CB9B.tiff 714F997B-31D5-4991-BC4A-5DDC7FA0D6A7.tiff

[benno573]

Thanks for posting the results mate. Enjoyed following this thread and I’m claiming the win on the sweeps to!