16 MEMOIES OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



connected with the fishes and fisheries of oiir transmontane river systems. ' ' Such 

 an officer has since been appointed by the Government of New South Wales, and 

 I am here privileged, through the courtesy of the Under Secretary, Chief 

 Secretary's Department, to record Mr. H, K. Anderson's — the officer in question 

 — observations on the breeding of this fish in the waters under his control. 

 These are of such interest that I deem it advisable to publish Mr. Anderson's 

 remarks in extenso : — 



"In the spring of 1916 and 1917 I was entrusted with the conduct of 

 experimental hatchery operations in relation to Murray Cod and Golden Perch, 

 and the following information regarding the latter species is based on the data 

 gathered on these occasions. 



' ' In the Murrumbidgee River at an altitude of between 370 and 530 feet 

 above sea level many Golden Perch, usually large fishes from five to ten pounds 

 in weight, spawn during October and November in a flooded river. If the season 

 is late, cold and wet, with snow water coming down stream, spawning is 

 considerably retarded, while abnormally warm weather accelerates it. 



"The condition of many of the smaller fishes handled by me leads to the 

 belief that there is an autumnal as well as a vernal spawning, but of this I cannot 

 as yet speak wdth certainty. Examples of fishes with well developed ovaries are 

 captured by net fishermen throughout the whole year. 



"Each spawning female, usually found without female companions, is 

 apparently accompanied by a large number of ripe males. I have never yet 

 netted a ripe female Golden Perch without capturing at the same time, and in 

 the same net, from twenty to fifty ripe males. 



"The fishes apparently spawn at the edge of the current near the bank, 

 below a spot where a bend in the river leaves a projecting point with compara- 

 tively still eddying water behind it. It is in such places that I have caught all 

 the ripe and most of the nearly ripe females so far examined. As a rule the fish 

 were kept in captivity a few days pending complete ripeness. Many Golden 

 Perch, however, spawn in lagoons and outer channels of the river, where the 

 current is not so strong as in the main stream. 



"The fertile eggs are semi-buoyant, practically of the same specific 

 gravity as water, and appear to be left by the fishes quite at the mercy of the 

 current. 



' ' The eggs are probably deposited in batches, 50,000 to 100,000 at a time. 

 I do not think the fish, however ripe, has power to eject all her eggs at once 

 because, when artificially stripping, only a limited number of eggs can be 

 extruded without undue pressure, but I found that, after giving the fish a fev\^ 

 minutes rest (rolled in v/et bagging to prevent struggling), another batch of eggs 

 can be stripped, and so on until all are extruded. 



"A five pounds Golden Perch carries from 750,000 to 1,000,000 eggs. 



"The unfertilised eggs when first stripped are of a very pale greyish 



