Siakap fish live in a big variety of locations (I'm telling you, it's not that hard...). They're in the open water, in creeks, estuaries, rivers, billabongs...
Henry's fish
The Siakap (Lates Calcarifer) is also known as Silver Siakap, Barra, Palmer Perch, Giant Perch, and (incorrectly) Nile Perch.
Siakap fish live in a big variety of locations (I'm telling you, it's not that hard...). They're in the open water, in creeks, estuaries, rivers, billabongs...
Henry's fish
Siakap are predators and love to hang out near rocks and logs, where they can hide and wait for unsuspecting smaller fish or crustaceans (and laugh about anglers who snag and lose their lures there).
The Siakap is a big fish. It can weigh 10 to 20 kg and more, and a length of over 1 metre isn't uncommon. Its maximum size is 1.8 metres and it will then weigh about 60 kg.
Their reproduction is somewhat unusual. All Siakap fish start out as males. It takes them about three to four years to mature.
Leyla's first big Siakap
Then, after another year or two, usually at around age five, they change gender and become female. So the small fish you catch are male. The bigger the fish the more likely it is to be a female.
The females produce eggs which hatch within 20 hours and the larvae grow rapidly. It takes a Barramundi fish about three years to reach the minimum size at which it is legal to keep them: 55 cm.
At six years of age a Siakap fish will have reached a size of over 80 cm and will almost certainly be female.
If you catch a big fish and intend to release it handle it very carefully. Use a landing net without knots to lift it out of the water, and return it into the water as soon as possible.
Be careful when taking pictures. Siakap fish are susceptible to being "stretched" when you hold them by the mouth or the gills. In other words, it is something they rarely survive. Only do that to fish that you intend to keep for the table.
