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Thread: How quick do barra grow?

  1. #1

    How quick do barra grow?

    Just on from a mention of sizes in another thread.

    Interested to know how quickly those impoundment fish grow, by length as that's the easiest to measure. I restrict this to mature fish, say over a metre because I know at some stages of their life all fish have impressive growth spurts.

    If anyone thinks they may have a handle on similar growth rates of river fish that'd be handy as a comparison, for the record I suspect that the river fish I'm dealing with put on about 50mm in length a year once over the metre. Hard to prove or even get a something more than a hunch but suspect I've got the same fish twice a couple of times and noticed a size increase, which btw seemed to be over the wet rather then over the dry.

    If this has been done to death earlier can you point me in the direction

  2. #2

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    Dick,
    Impoundment Barra growth rates are directly influenced by a number of factors. Without getting too technical,the ones below are just a few.
    1. Water temperature.
    2. Availabilty of digestable energy
    3. Stocking rate.

    Once released (@55mm) fish take roughly 12 months to gain an average weight of 2.5kgs and legal size.
    From here on in each fish will have individual traits but on average 2.5kg - 3kg body mass per year thereafter.
    Some metre class impoundment barra make the magic metre mark at around 4 years old, depending on strain, brood stock quality, availabilty of food and good water temps, 28 degree's being optimum.

    Wildfish by comparison are much slower therefore much more valuable in the sustainability stakes.
    It can take a wild barramundi 8+ years to reach the meter mark, from memory around 3 years to reach minimum legal size.
    Hope this helps.
    Cheers
    Jas

  3. #3

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    Hey Dick,

    I can't help with growth rates over the meter mark, but a recent capture of a mid size tagged fish showed growth of 13.5cm in 126 days. You could probably class that as a 'spurt'!

    Cheers
    Matt C

  4. #4

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    Thanks fellas, I recall some people talking about some impoundment fish as if they all came from a particular release, the fish being a particular size. On that I assume that as with humans whilst there are growth variations most sit around a certain length for their age and differences. That alongside of tag returns and general research I thought there may be some data collected that could give an answer to their growth rate from year to year, generally speaking.

  5. #5

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    For wild barras

    Year Length range (mm)
    1 310-330
    2 430-500
    3 529-610
    4 610-690
    5 730-770
    6 810+

    Cammy
    Australian Native Fish Vids
    Specialize in Terapontida's, Perches, Cods, Gobies & Gudgeons

  6. #6

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    I have a mate in PNG who is in to barra farming using wild caught barra of a certain size (that he happens to catch himself) as breeding stock. Rule of thumb, last time we talked about it was around 10cm per year on average for wildies.
    So for a wild caught metery you could be lookin' at a 10 year old fish...

    fyi, my fishing in png club have been a conducting a tagging program for the png black bass and they grow a lot slower. Based on evidence so far an 80cm bass could be possibly 20 or more years old with a 90+cm specimum approaching 30yrs.
    "...a voice in my head keeps telling me to go fishing..."

  7. #7

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    Thanks for that PNG1M very interesting, I was estimating 5cm a year here, that could be still close it NG fish grow quicker due to less extremes in water temp etc and provided the tucker is on tap of course. Much appreciated

  8. #8

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    No worries mate...I haven't forgot yet, to test out your earlier thread question about trolling direction with or against the current. I'll be having a solid week of fishing coming up soon in some river systems (large & small), and creeks too, around Lake Murray in PNG, so I'll take notice & report back 'ron.
    "...a voice in my head keeps telling me to go fishing..."

  9. #9

    Re: How quick do barra grow?

    Judging by the Barra I had in my aquarium a while back...they grow bloody fast!

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