Golden Perch

[darashee]

I am interested in raising Golden Perch, but I have been told that they don't take pellets. Has anyone had any luck with other foods that is easy to learn about?

I would love to cohabit some silvers and golden. What are my chances? If I put both worms and pellets in the water they will go for the live food first, therefore what are the cheapest and best options? Not having Golden?

[Murray]

I am going to give some Goldens a go this summer. By what I am told they are a bit hard to get onto pellets. They are bottom feeders, so they will need to be fed on worms etc.

Bruce at Ausyfish is the man to talk to. And you can read about Goldens on his site.
http://www.ausyfish.com/golden_perch_aquaculture.htm (http://www.ausyfish.com/introduction.htm)

Ausyfish Pty Ltd
P. O. Box 324 Childers Qld
Ph 07 4126 2226

Evidently there are 3 strains of Goldens and there is one strain that is easier to get onto pellets than the others. Bruce has this particular strain and I am going to give a 100 a go this summer.

Murray

[Bubba]

How did you find Golden Perch Murray. Has anyone else grown them out. The info on ausy fish reads like they might go well in a cooler climate AP system - Adleaide.

I notice the ausyfish seem less enthusiastic about silvers as an AP fish reporting problems growing out over 300g or so.

[Murray]

I did not have any luck with the Golden Perch and not many people do....
Jonty a member of this forum has some he has raised successfully last I heard. Perhaps you could PM him for some pointers.

[aussieap]

There are no worries with silvers, it is all about stocking density. They will grow out nicely to a kilo over a couple of summers. Plenty of examples in the ap world.
I have read many reports of people having trouble getting golden perch onto pellets from live feed, which is a very expensive exercise. I have no experience with them myself, but it is a common concern from those who have tried them.
Apart from that, they seem a great fish, quick growing, tasty etc.

[Bubba]

Golden Perch and not many people do....
Don't sound like a first timer fish then.

[robinmill]

darashee
I am getting some golden perch this month
did you have a go at them
robin

[Cecil]

I am interested in raising Golden Perch, but I have been told that they don't take pellets. Has anyone had any luck with other foods that is easy to learn about?



Obviously I have no experience with Golden Perch here in the U.S. but are you sure they can't be trained as fingerlings to take pellets? I say this because we've had several species here in the U.S. that originally everyone didn't think they could be trained to take pellets but now it's the norm. One example is the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). I have an old text that says they are nearly impossible to feed train when now that is pretty much all you can buy.

Training consists of crowding fingerlings in tanks with water temps on the high end of their metabolism with good water quality and nothing else to eat. Some of the fish never train but the majority do. One has to start with soft foods and slowly switch over to the commercial.

With my raising of fish in cages I've successfully trained fish to eat pellets by hydrating the dry feed in zip lock bags. It's important to not use too much water and to agitate the bag on and off for about 30 minutes to get the all of the pellets to absorb the water. Then let it set for a couple of hours. What one wants is a soft pellet with a clay like texture that you can get to sink if you squeeze the air out of it. A friend has trained adult wild fish this way.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Golden perch have a reputation for being difficult to transition onto pelletised rations.......and my hatchery of choice advises that they are probably not the best first-time choice for novice aquaponicists.

For those who love a challenge, it might be worth trying Cecil's suggestions. I've also heard about starting off with bloodworms and gradually introducing more and more of the tiny pellets until the fish are feeding on the pellets alone.

I'd be more inclined to go with silver perch or jade perch (if you have the climate for them) initially.....and then try barramundi or trout once you've got a good grip on managing water quality.

Gary

[Cecil]

Gary,

An interesting thing about training a species to feed on pellets is each subsequent generation is easier to train due to the genetics of those that won't accept the pellets being removed from the gene pool. It's very important to hydrate the pellets once they are introduced -- at least at first. I've never tried it but I've heard soaking the pellets in tuna juice helps a lot too.

[GaryD]

Hi Cecil,

Breeding freshwater fish works a bit differently in Australia. Hatcheries have special licenses to take predetermined numbers of brooder fish from the wild......so they may not be able to take advantage of the generational effect to which you've referred.

Gary

[Cecil]

Hi Cecil,

Breeding freshwater fish works a bit differently in Australia. Hatcheries have special licenses to take predetermined numbers of brooder fish from the wild......so they may not be able to take advantage of the generational effect to which you've referred.

Gary

So they can't hang on to these brooder fish and produce successive generations at the hatchery and subsequently use some of the offspring for brooder fish in the future?

[GaryD]

Hi Cecil,

I imagine that they do.

I'm under the impression, however, that some of these fish have to be several years old before they'll breed and that means that, very quickly, a few generation of these fish run out to 10 or 20 years. The domestication of some species (like jade perch for example) is a relatively recent thing.

I understand that there is a Lake Eyre strain of Golden Perch which is proving to be less problematic when it comes to getting it to eat but it's still early days.

Gary