Jade Perch

The fish I have in my 3 aquaponics tanks are a western Queensland freshwater fish called Barcoo Grunter or Jade Perch. It has been called the latter because of a variable sized and placed spot on the side of the fish. It seems to be really hardy and quite suitable for home based aquaponics with the added benefit of having quite high levels of omega 3 fatty acids when eaten.

I have had my systems now for over 2 years and we eat about 1 fish/week. Each year around November I purchase another 50-60 fingerlings to replace those we have eaten. The fish in the photo is 300mm long and is about 18months old.

They eat barramundi pellets and also lettuce leaves and a wide variety of other plant leaves - recently I found they also eat chickweed - this seems logical as out in western Queenland in the rivers they would be eating all sorts of plant materials that falls into the water. They also eat purslane which is well known to be high in omega 3 fatty acids so I am quite happy to toss into the tanks these sort of weeds for them to eat.

Preparing them is pretty easy - catch with a net - gut and fillet. The bones are just about always completely removed at filleting. We leave the skin on and Anne cooks them various ways but I prefer them done in a white sauce. They smoke up really well also. As they are growing in tanks they have quite a pleasant flavour - not muddy at all.

Whilst we do not get any frosts over winter here I turn off my pumps at night to keep the water temperatures up . This works well at keeping the water temperatures over 13* which seems to be the important minimum for this species.