[Brackos]

does anyone know if there are any native fish that can breed in a farm dam?

 

[koich]

Cod,Silvers and Goldens will under certain circumstances. For Cod you just need to provide suitable nest boxes-hollow logs or half barrels - for them to do it in. It won't be every season but it will happen.

Goldens and silvers spawn in the shallows in the weedbeds, so it depends on your dam. I've fished farm dams before with several different year classes of goldens in them from one initial stocking. As long as there is a sufficient suitable weedbed they'll spawn. You need a shallowish bit that doesn't get stirred up by livestock.

 

[Barrabundy]

Hi brackos, if you check out a few of the hatcheries, here's one as an example http://www.ausnativefish.com.au/ , you can check out the different species to see what they say about them.

I looked at spangled perch for example and it says they will breed in farm dams, I'm sure there would be others which also breed, just a matter of finding out what factors affect successful breeding.

 

[scater]

Barra and Bass won't - they need the salt.

 

[Brackos]

Thanks everyone. can murry cod survive in a cold climate like bowral?

 

[Barrabundy]

Thanks everyone. can murry cod survive in a cold climate like bowral?

8°-24°C according to this http://www.aquariumindustries.com.au/wp ... ay-Cod.pdf

 

[Shuggy22]

You should check with fisheries if your thinking bout it mate,
and you cant just go grabbing fish from your local to
put in there.
Just some words of advice.

 

[Brackos]

I don't have cod around my place all I get is carp, redfin and if your lucky a bass.

 

[Daveyak]

A cousin has built some dams on his farm in the wheatbelt here in WA in which he grows fish to sell. The water that flows through these dams comes from a spring and is slightly salty (too salty for sheep,etc) and he has been growing out trout in these dams for quite a few years.

When he started the system he stocked the first dam with bream and they seemed to thrive. I'm sure he said that they were breeding in there as well but being such slow growing fish made them not viable for fish farming, hence the shift to trout. There are still some bream in his system a& occasionally he allows friends to fish the dams for sport.

The trout are contained in net enclosures & the few bream live outside these, along with some big escapee trout. So it seems that it can be done with bream, but their slow growth rate means very few people do so.

 

[Zilch]

I am a committee member of safwaa (South Australian Fresh Water Anglers Association), the clubs title is a bit deceiving as our main focus is on 25 dams that we stock with fish (Murray Cod, Golden Perch, Silver Perch, Catfish, Rainbow and Brown Trout). These dams vary from barren small farmers dams to massive property owner dams with dead trees and lots of snags, the club knows for sure the Catfish breed in the dams (you can see them making their nests and later the babies swimming around) but we have no evidence that any other native breeds in them. All our dams are teaming with feed / bait fish, these and the shrimp do breed prolifically in our dams.

Perhaps in a warmer climate and even better conditions natives could breed but even if fish in our dams did breed there is a good chance the Murray Cod would eat them. We have some very large Cod in our dams, recently a new member got one 30 - 40 lb and we know some of our dams have unstoppable ones in their (they have been hooked but not landed).

All Trout will die in around 3-4 years if they can't breed, which is next to impossible in 99% of any dams.

Steve