Two 17"-18" Murray cods, 2 year old

[surfermike915]

Cod are pretty easy to produce in hatcherys. Cod can handle the higher temps but can't live in them. Its better to stay around 20-24C.
100% add salt. Sorry assumed you already were running salt in the tank. The murray is pretty salty, I use murray river salt in my cooking

What salt do you use? And what dosage? It’s very interesting about how they live in near brackish water. I appreciate the knowledge. I guess that’s why there’s so few true freshwater fish down under. The Murray Cod is still a true river fish, just can handle differentiating salt content dependent on where it is in the river.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

100% add salt. Sorry assumed you already were running salt in the tank. The murray is pretty salty, I use murray river salt in my cooking.

Thank you much for this. Are other rivers where the cod lives salty? Murray river and its basin is a rather small part of their overall habitat, e.g., are the rivers of Queensland salty?

 

[surfermike915]

From what I've found, the Murray-Darling drainage basin is connected to many other rivers such as the Baloone and the Condamine River. They are found in Queensland yes, but in connected rivers that fall under the Murray-Darling river basin. But obviously there is underground salt that leeches into the river, and in recent years has drastically raised the Murray's salinity. Maybe the underground salt deposits are only in South Eastern Australia. I have read that adding crushed coral/aragonite may aid in the buffering of the water, making it harder how the Cod likes it. This is what I do for my Bumblebee Grouper. He is in rather low salinity for a grouper, but because of the hardness, it helps a lot, although rather soon he will be in a higher salinity system. It looks like Vik and I may need to keep our guys in specialized systems, which I was actually planning on in the first place. I have some friends in Australia who are anglers so I'll dig deeper for an answer.
mike

 

[Friller2009]

Thank you much for this. Are other rivers where the cod lives salty? Murray river and its basin is a rather small part of their overall habitat, e.g., are the rivers of Queensland salty?

Where cod occur yes. Queensland is actually quite large with several large drainage basins.
Most australian rivers are salty, but some more so than others

What salt do you use? And what dosage? It’s very interesting about how they live in near brackish water. I appreciate the knowledge. I guess that’s why there’s so few true freshwater fish down under. The Murray Cod is still a true river fish, just can handle differentiating salt content dependent on where it is in the river.

They're not really a true freshwater fish if you really do a deep genetic dive (Unmack's wok), but they are a riverine fish.
It's really just Saratoga and Salamanderfish.
Lungfish aren't even fish

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

2 murrays grew a couple inches in 3 months:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

From 3 inches to 6 inches and 7 inches in 5.5 months. The smaller cod switches tanks.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Turns out the smaller cod had been sick even before the transfer:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Unexplained loss. Thought there could be a physical obstruction to eating but non found. Grew from 3" to 7" in 6 months, eating well only for 5 months or less.

 

[qldmick]

Unfortunately I just sold mine due to moving soon.
Quite a bit of variance in them, the 17 were 9cm - 17cm.
One of my favorite fish.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

qldmick Wow, nice bunch. What temps do you keep yours at, especially the high end? I assume you are in Queensland?