Deakin University
Browse

Spawning season movements of Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica) in the Yarra River, Victoria

journal contribution
posted on 2013-01-01, 00:00 authored by Wayne Michael Koster, D Dawson, J Morrongiello, D Crook
The Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica) is a threatened fish species that inhabits rivers and impoundments in south-eastern Australia. Previous studies have shown that Macquarie perch in impoundments exhibit synchronised upstream spawning migrations to shallow, fast-flowing habitats in the lower reaches of inflowing streams. There has been little study of movement behaviours of entirely riverine populations of Macquarie perch despite this being the species’ natural habitat. Here, radio-telemetry is used to test the hypothesis that riverine populations exhibit synchronised migrations during the spawning season. Thirty Macquarie perch in the Yarra River, Victoria, a translocated population outside of the species’ natural range, were radio-tagged before the late spring–early summer spawning season and their movements followed over a 10-month period (May 2011 to February 2012). Tagged fish typically occupied restricted reaches of stream (<450 m). Sixteen of the fish undertook occasional upstream or downstream movements (~250–1000 m) away from their usual locations, particularly associated with large flow variations during the spawning season. There was no evidence of synchronised migratory behaviour or movement of multiple fish to specific locations or habitats during the spawning season. Whilst further research over more years is needed to comprehensively document the spawning-related behaviours of riverine Macquarie perch, our study demonstrates that management of riverine populations of this threatened species cannot necessarily be based on the model of spawning behaviour developed for lacustrine populations.

History

Journal

Australian journal of zoology

Volume

61

Issue

5

Pagination

386 - 394

Publisher

CSIRO

Location

Melbourne, Vic.

ISSN

0004-959X

eISSN

1446-5698

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2013, CSIRO Publishing

Usage metrics

    Research Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC