Habitat
The PERCH MAN ABN 42 065 149 145
Click to download Jade Perch Description and History PDF
Jade and silver perch larvae are very tiny when they hatch.
Providing the right food, that they will actually eat is the ket to successful production of fry or fingerlings.
This page will help you understand how they reproduce in the wild, and why they are differrent to any other freshwater fish.
Jade Perch, (Scortum barcoo) come from an area of Australia known as the Lake Eyre Basin.
This is a very dry arid aera of Australia.
The Lake Eyre species of golden perch also come from exactly the same place.
In particular, the Barcoo River.
Click for a short flight down the Barcoo River One and a half minutes
Here, the water does not drain into rivers that end up in the ocean.
All the rain that falls in this region drains inland, eventually reaching Lake Eyre, provided there is enough rain to make it that far.
This is a huge area.
See the red area in the map below.
Some of the catchment reaches up into tropical parts.
Occasionally the remnants of a cyclone, in the form of a tropical depression, move to the top end of the catchment.
This sort of event can result in large amount of rain flooding vast inland areas of country.
For the fish in the waterholes of the Lake Eyre Basin these events create a massive explosion in the food chain.
When this area is not experiencing any water flow, and the water temperatures are at winter levels, food is hard for fish to find.
Mass spawning occurs and the life cycle of fish life starts again.
Click picture to see a video of the breeders being caught in the Barcoo River.
Three minutes 15 seconds.
They come from the Lake Eyre River Basin.
Below the river basins of Australia with the Lake Eyre Basin in Red
The red area is the natural range of jade perch and the Lake Eyre species of golden perch, (Macquaria Sp).
The yellow and blue areas are where the other two golden perch species come from.
Jade perch, (Scortum barcoo) and the species of golden perch used in aquaculture, (Macquaria Sp) only occur naturally in this area of Australia.
To enlarge maps right click on the image and opening in a new tab.
Do they occur naturally in any other country - NO !
Do they occur naturally in any other country - NO !
Video trip to the Barcoo RiverThis is part 1 of the Jade Perch Story 10 minutes 30 seconds
Click for part 2 of the jade perch story 6 minutes
Transporting live fish video 2 minutes 17 seconds
For detailed information about jade perch
go to the members area click for more
OTHER SPECIES
Click the picture for video - Low altitude passes over Barcoo River - with surprise ending
Click the picture below to see some of the birds and other wild life I filmed while collecting jade perch and golden perch breeders
