Peter is employed by Queensland Department of Primary Industries as a Fisheries Technician at Walkamin Freshwater Fisheries & Aquaculture Centre on the Atherton Tablelands.

For the last few years the DPI’s fresh water fishers research facility at Walkamin (Atherton Tablelands) has been involved in research to explore the possibility of developing the Golden Perch. as grow-out species for the table fish market. As one of the researchers in this project, Peter’s talk will bring us up-to-date with this work. We will hear the latest developments on attempts to have these species take artificial food in ponds and in re-circulating systems. Of special interest to many will be any new knowledge. If you have an interest in growing fish in re-circulating systems or cages within ponds, this looks like being a promising species for this form of aquaculture. This will be the final report on this project.

As part of the New Initiatives program in aquaculture, DPI & F Queensland has been investigating potential for aquaculture of native freshwater fish. This has concentrated on Murray-Darling strain golden perch (Macquaria ambigua).

There have been five main areas of research:

•Aquaculture potential

•Market

•Strains

•Diseases

•Pond production

Potential for Aquaculture

Golden perch are considered by many to be Australia's prime freshwater table fish, and they have long been considered for aquaculture. Finding a suitable food for them in captivity has been problematic. They take fresh foods well (eg yabbies, meat, worms) but there have been problems maintaining them on pellet foods in pond grow out situations. Weaning juvenile golden perch onto artificial diets has been one barrier to development of golden perch aquaculture.

Golden perch growth rates in the wild indicate they could reach market size in under two years, as they reach up to 700g in two years.  The high demand for golden perch for recreational fishing ensures good supplies of cheap fingerlings, which are produced by commercial hatcheries.

 In short, golden perch meet the requirements of availability of seed stock, ready market and high price.

Market Market in a niche market at present. The primary buyers are of Chinese origin who like eating fresh water fish, and also prefer moist flesh. The yellow colour of the fish is very important in this market, as the standard was the wild caught fish from the rivers of New South Wales. The preferred size about 600-800 g, as determined by interviews and market studies of golden perch buyers.  However, they will buy anything between  400-1400g. Trials in 2004 of smaller fish (250-350g) met with good results, even though the market is used to larger fish from the fishery in South Australia.

More market issues will be covered in this presentation. 

Purging Alternative purging methods will be discussed as well as problems encounter during purging.

Strains There are three distinct strains of golden perch in Australia.  Issues surrounding these strains will be discussed.

Disease Golden perch suffer from the usual aquaculture fish diseases, particularly as fry and fingerlings. As larger fish they are very tough, handling poor water quality (pH > 10, ammonia > 3mg/L).  We do not recommend these conditions, as they will restrict growth. However, the fish can handle them for short periods without apparent ill effect. However, they can suffer from bacterial septicaemia, skin infections and are particularly vulnerable to Tetrahymena corlissi.

Details will covered.

Further Research Needs will be discussed.

Production of golden perch in pond systems. Several areas needed to be looked at.  We investigated the systems in place both overseas and in Australia, and, after some initial trials, decided to follow the methods developed here in New South Wales by Stuart Rowland and his team at Grafton for silver perch.

We split the research into three distinct areas:

Weaning

Nursery

Grow out.

 Details will be covered during the presentation.