The slideshow above is from a Google search of Barramundi – there are more photos of men in hats holding a Barra than you can poke a stick at.
Barramundi: A species widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia.
Known locally as Barra – they have large, silver scales, which may become darker or lighter, depending on their environment. Their bodies can reach up to 1.8m long.
(news@csiro recently found that “Barra” can be used in almost any circumstance in Northern Australia)
Q: How are you feeling?
A: Barra
Q: What are you doing today?
A: Barra
Q: What did you do last night?
A: Barra.
Q: When will you get that report to me?
A: Barra.
“I can’t be barraed doing that.”
Barramundi are demersal, inhabiting coastal waters, estuaries, lagoons and rivers; they are found in clear to turbid water, usually within a temperature range of 26−30C. This species does not undertake extensive migrations within or between river systems, which has presumably influenced establishment of genetically distinct stocks in Northern Australia.
Barramundi are mainly a summertime fish, but can be caught all year round, and may be found frolicking in mud. They are usually targeted using both hard and soft-bodied lures.
They feed on crustaceans, molluscs, and smaller fish(including its own species); juveniles feed on zooplankton. It lives in rivers and moves to estuaries and tidal flats to spawn.
At the start of the monsoon, males migrate downriver to meet females, which lay very large numbers of eggs (several millions each). The adults do not guard the eggs or the fry, which require brackish water to develop.
The species is sequentially hermaphroditic, with most individuals maturing as males and becoming female after at least one spawning season; most of the larger specimens are therefore female. Fish held in captivity sometimes demonstrate features atypical of fish in the wild: they change sex at a smaller size, exhibit a higher proportion of protogyny and some males do not undergo sexual inversion.
NOTE: Don’t forget the FFT competition to win Sharks and Rays of Australia. Look at FFT last week for details.
