Hey all,
My son was fishing in the Brissie river last week and managed to catch a 'Jewie". It measured 45cm and was returned after taking a phone camera piccie. Unfortunately the picture wasn't clear enough to positively identify the fish.
Now I looked at the DPI website and found an interesting link to help identify 'Silver Jewfish" but not much else.
No scientific names to help with id.
I sent DPI an email detailing the description and was returned a verdict of 'Scaly Jewfish (jewelfish) which was nothing like the fish caught.
It had yellow fins, yellow mouth. Now I thought these fish used to be called 'river jew' or 'river perch' when I was a kid but not positive.
Anyhow after another phone chat with another fisheries inspector I am still none the wiser. Not having a go at either inspector as the photo was crappy and description obviously not clear enough.
I decided to do some research into which fish is what and was directed to http://www.fishbase.org/ as this apparently is the website that DPI uses to identify fish.
It was extremely frustrating and time consuming and I am still none the wiser. It appears that both Mulloway and Jewfish in some cases share the same scientific name.
I was mainly concerned with this from DPI website....
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/2458.html
Catch the right jewfish or catch a fine
Queensland recreational fishers are being reminded of the different bag and size limits that apply to the various species - particularly silver jewfish. (I can not see Silver Jew listed in the new regs anywhere)
Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F), Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officer Meagan Hepworth said there had been a rise in the number of fishers mistaking silver jewfish for other jewfish that are not covered by the same regulations.
"The silver jewfish has a minimum legal size catch of 45cm and any undersized catch should immediately be returned to the water," Ms Hepworth said.
The reason I went looking is that Silver Jewfish are not or do not appear to be listed in the CRFF or Other tidal fish size and bag limits.
Anyhow I have created a Word Document containing a wealth of info and confusing descriptors that us average fishos should know, especially when it comes to fish identification. The file is too large to upload here so if anyone is interested send me a pm.
I would really like to have clearly identified which species was caught, whether a small mulloway or in fact a river jewie.
To illustrate the confusion it could be any one of these.....
1/ Silver jew is shown on DPI website (no scientific name to verify)
2/ Argyrosomus japonicus. – Jewfish
3/ Nibea soldado. – Silver Jewfish
4/ Argyrosomus hololepidotus - Mulloway
5/ Argyrosomus japonicus. - Mulloway
Jeez I'm so confused.....
Cheers
Shane
Your fish would have been a mulloway, known to most anglers simply as a jew or jewfish. The only other 'jew' found in south east Qld estuaries is the 'little jewfish' which only grows to about 30cm.
The silver jew and the black jew are northern species and the teraglin is an offshore fish.
Cheers Freeeedom
Hey Freedom, thanks for your thought mate. Yep, I know the teraglin is an ouside fish but according to Fishbase.org it does carry the same scientific name to the silver jew in some instances. If only DPI listed the scientific name it would be so much easier.
This is very close to being identical to what Doug caught that night.....
It might be because it was a juvenile but it did not have the black spot and was not orange inside the mouth.
Attachment 44200
From the DPI website mulloway are described as being .....
Description
This species is one of the largest of the Australian jewfishes. It grows to about 180cm (60kg), but is more common at 7-35kg. Mulloway take 19 years to reach sexual maturity and at this time they are around 85cm in length. These fish are silvery with an opalescent sheen. They have pearly spots along the lateral line which fade with death. Mulloway can be distinguished by a black spot at the base of the pectoral fin. The fins are grey or brown and the dorsal fin is long and notched after the spine section. The mulloway is a heavy-shouldered and long-bodied fish, and the inside of the mouth is always bright orange.
When you insert "Jew" fish into the search engine on Fishbase.org there are some 33 different 'species' of jewfish and many with the same scientific name.
Also when you insert 'Mulloway' you are faced with 3 different species according to scientific name.
This according to Fishbase.org is also a 'silver jew'
Attachment 44201
and yet does not seem to show the same fin types as described in the DPI website.
Shane
There are two problems causing the confusion Shane.
The first is that common names used for the same fish vary from place to place, so that mulloway (the official common name) is replaced by jew,jewfish, jewelfish, silver jew, croaker etc depending on where you are. This means that common names are suspect when used as an identification.
The second is that scientific names, which are used for identification, also change. They are changed as the animals are studied more and are reclassified by biologists. DNA studies now allow scientists to be much more certain about relationships between related species, subspecies etc. This means that a lot of reclassification has occurred in the last decade or so.
Scientific names are also confused by different scientists in different parts of the world describing the same fish and giving it different names at different times in the past. When this has happened the earliest valid published description and name has priority and the other names are known as synonyms.
It would appear that the current valid name for mulloway is Argyrosomus japonicus and Argyrosomus hololepidotus (which DPI is using) and Johnius antarctica are synonyms.
The black jew which is the large jew of more northern waters has the scientific name of Protonibea diacanthus with a synonym of Johnius diacanthus
With all that said, the fish your son caught can only be a jew (mulloway) because of its size and location. I've attached a picture of a similar sized fish caught in the Pine last year for comparison.
Note that the DPI document you quoted
"The silver jewfish has a minimum legal size catch of 45cm and any undersized catch should immediately be returned to the water," Ms Hepworth said.
is out of date. The legal size for a jew (mulloway) is now 75cm.
It's interesting that in the table of legal lengths and bag limits that a fish called the scaly jewfish or jewel fish has a legal length of 45cm and no bag limit but I can find no other reference to this fish anywhere else on the DPI site. I find that very strange for a regulated fish.
From this site
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...y.php?id=15457
it seems it is a medium sized 'jewfish' that occurs around Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cheers Freeeedom
Hey Freedom
no disrespect, u have obviously done a lot of research, but there is no way
that that fish is a (jewfish) It looks to me like a silver jew, Im not certain wat it is
but I am certain wat its not.
Cheers Simon
No problem Rat-King - I totally agree that the picture that CreelReaper put up is not a mulloway.
But note that the picture CreelReaper put up was NOT the fish in question. Those pictures came from a DPI site of Queensland fish
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dp...5_ENA_HTML.htm
Those pictures are of the 'silver jewfish' Nibea soldado
This fish, which is known as a 'soldier croaker' occurs all the way from India and South-East Asia through Indonesia, PNG to northern Australia. For details see this link
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/summary...ry.php?id=8309
I doubt it would extend as far south as Brisbane.
Cheers Freeeedom
yeah def not a normal jewie or a mulloway, i catch a shit load of small ones of your fish in the river when im after prawns, they look a little the same as a jewie but you can tell the difference easy enough.
Quoted:
No problem Rat-King - I totally agree that the picture that CreelReaper put up is not a mulloway.
But note that the picture CreelReaper put up was NOT the fish in question. Those pictures came from a DPI site of Queensland fish
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dp...5_ENA_HTML.htm
Those pictures are of the 'silver jewfish' Nibea soldado
This fish, which is known as a 'soldier croaker' occurs all the way from India and South-East Asia through Indonesia, PNG to northern Australia. For details see this link
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/summary...ry.php?id=8309
I doubt it would extend as far south as Brisbane.
Cheers Freeeedom
Hey guys, yep it is confusing, and I am certainly not professing to be an expert. I pity the poor mum and dad fish tho.
Freedom, I merely posted that particular picture because the son was adamant that what he caught was the closest we could find to a decent piccie. (I wasn't there to see it)
I would at this point agree with Rat-King on your fish also. By the DPI website Mulloway can be distinguished by a black spot at the base of the pectoral fin. The fins are grey or brown and the dorsal fin is long and notched after the spine section. The mulloway is a heavy-shouldered and long-bodied fish, and the inside of the mouth is always bright orange.
The page from the DPI webisite describing the Silver Jew was updated on November 28 2008 so I would think it was still current.
You are also right in that most Jew or mulloway do frequent our northern waters. There are a few though that don't according to Fishbase.org. As you can see from the map the Nibea Soldada has been known as far south as New Zealand and the Argyrosomus japonicus' distribution is right around our southern half of the continent.
Banana Jew, Grassy Jew, Silver Jewfish, - Nibea soldado Soldier croaker
Attachment 44252
Attachment 44256
Jew, Jewfish, School Jew, Silver Jew, Silver Jewfish, - Argyrosomus japonicus Japanese meagre
In fact this is what I believe your fish from the Logan might be.
Attachment 44255
Indo-West Pacific: African southeast coast from Cape of Good Hope to southern Mozambique; northern Indian Ocean off Pakistan and northwest coast of India; northern Pacific from southern Korea and Japan, along the Chinese coast to Hong Kong; in Australia along the entire southern seaboard from North West Cape (north of Shark Bay) in Western Australia to the Burnett River (north of Brisbane) in Queensland.
Shane
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