fish kill

[laz]

I was out at fairbairn dam on the weekend and there was dead barra all along the dam wall the bigest was 123cm .Cold weather do you think ? :'(

[Mudguard 92]

I was out at fairbairn dam on the weekend and there was dead barra all along the dam wall the bigest was 123cm .Cold weather do you think ? :'(
Nah - Dont think it would have been cold weather mate..

[flyfisho]

I have got some mates working in Emerald at the moment , and I don't know how true it is but they reckon that they seen a heap of barra on their side (looking dead) and they swam out to get one and when they touched it they all freaked, if thats true they must be pretty comatosed , especially with some pissed concretor dog paddeling out

[flyfisho]

maybe sunbaking ?

[tanglefoot]

How much water is in the Dam?

[Brooksy]

Could definately be temperature. I would be interested to know what the water temp is at the moment??

Steve

[laz]

its 19%at the moment

[laz]

I agree with you about the water temp .If there was some thing dodgey with the water there would have truck loads of dead bony bream ( there wasn't any )as they are the frist fish to go dick up

[rayken1938]

Quite interesting because according to Sweetwater fishing there has only been 9000 barra fingerlings released and it is a rare occurance to catch one. Do they try to reach the salt like bass to breed?
Ray

[Brooksy]

Also been barra dying in Callide and Moondarra Dam

[nedoleboy]

talking to a mate in mt isa this arvo and he was trolling in the dam near there and a few big deaduns floating around (barra).ned.

[laz]

yeh mate barra have got to go back to the salt to breed .The last time fairbairn dam overflowed was back in 91 . Even if the barra got over the wall and lived there is still a heap weirs to get over before they can reach the fitzroy to breed

[laz]

Was that moondarra dam or lake julius

[cdg81]

it has been cold there of late and low water. mixture of both

[laz]

I see your fom Marian do any barra die during winter at Teemburra,Kinchant dams or Eungella

[lenthals_barra]

i went fishing at moondarra today and i would of seen atleast 50 dead barra upto 130cm. all were ova 1mtr except one bout 70cm. i was fishing the shallows and there was barra absolutely everywhere just cruising around and you think they'd take a lure! i had one hit all day and two follows. all the fish i seen swimming around were easily over a meter long. water temp was 14.7 in the deep and between 15.3-16.2 in the shallows. i did find a small shallow bay and it was 17.6 degrees. thats where i had the hit and 2 follows. the water has gone up about a metre, i think its the ph level changing because of the grass and wattle trees making the water acidic and the cold killing them. it made the front page of the local newspaper today!

[Fitzy]

Quite interesting because according to Sweetwater fishing there has only been 9000 barra fingerlings released and it is a rare occurance to catch one. Do they try to reach the salt like bass to breed?
Ray

At the time of writting that was correct, however the local stocking group have resumed stocking of barra in that lake. I dont know numbers correct numbers released since....

Barra, like bass, will certainly try to go over a dam wall if there is a flow event at the right time of year.

Cheers,

fitz..

[goddy100]

The barra dying in Moondarra happens every couple of years when we get a prolonged cold period. The Fish Stocking Group usually organises a fish rescue to get them back into the main part of the dam.
Nobody could conclusivly pin down what was killing the fish, eg dam rollover, extreme cold, etc, but they all seem to be in the shallow areas. This makes us believe that it is the change in temperature, not just the cold, which does it. The barra move into the shallows during the day, as the sun will heat these parts up the most. They stay in the shallows, but as the temperature goes down (was about 3.8 deg out here the other day) these areas drop down the fastest and cool off. The constant up and down of the temp is what stresses the fish which turns it belly up after a while. The big fish first, then the smaller ones (can't remember why). Getting them into the main dam where the water is still cold, but they can move to a comfortable depth and stay at a constant temp seems to help.

Goddy

ps-or I could be completly wrong, not a biologist::)

[laz]

Do the barra survive after they have been placed back in the main part of the dam or do they just head back into the shallows

[goddy100]

If they are not too far gone. Some will die several days later and you will find them not too far from where they are released, within about 1km. They may go back up the shallows, hard to tell, last time we ran out of tags but I don't think we dragged any tagged dead ones out.

Goddy

[bilofish]

The fish kill at Callide is due to water temp...has reached as low as 12 degrees.
All fish at this stage all dead fish are over the metre mark with the biggest to date being 135cm... Approx 150 dead fish at this stage,could be more but time will tell..
Not a disaster at this stage with good fish still being caught on lure and fly...fish are healthy but very very cold.

There is a working bee at the dam this saturday 14-7-07 for anyone interested to clean up the dead fish..8am at boat ramp.

Lots of fish dying at different locations..need warm nights and days to get some temp back in water

[laz]

I took a walk along the Nogoa river thru the botanical gardens to day but i didn't see any dead barra any where .There has been about 50.000 barra stocked between the Selma and town weir since 2004 i hope they don't go dick up

[laz]

mate there has been nothing in our local rag or the radio station about our fish kill i only found out from my son and he lives in Mackay

[laz]

sorry mate that should have been 50000 barra stocked since 1997 up to 2004

[laz]

yeah ive heard some people have been taking them home to eat. what if its not the cold weather thats rocking them eh