General Information

Yellowbelly are an Australian native freshwater fish of the Murray Darling River System and in the South is also known as Callop. They are carnivores which eat yabbies, shrimp, fish and insect larvae. Yellowbelly grow to quite a large size, over 20kgs but are best eating at under 2kgs. Yellowbelly are excellent eating as well as an excellent sporting fish and this is the reason so many people stock their dams with them. They take baits, flys and lures so are relatively easy to catch. They provide great entertainment and sport to many farm dam owners and are prized by most as an excellent sporting species.

In an average farm dam Yellowbelly can reach 400 grams in 18 months in this region. Yellowbelly grow relatively fast but growth is dependent on the availability of food. Most farm dams can be enhanced by the introduction of additional food species such as yabbies, shrimp or gudgeons. This is especially important if the dam is under 18 months old.

Yellowbelly are an extremely hardy species that thrive in farm dams. They do need food and small dams (under 1 ML) do not produce enough food for large fish. (Click here for calculating your farm dam capacity). We do not recommend stocking of Yellowbelly in dams less than 1 ML in capacity. Smaller dams under 1 ML suit Silver Perch better.

We grow both Silvers and Goldens at Aquablue Seafoods and consider the Goldens a lot tougher than Silvers. They handle better, do not seem to get as many diseases or stress out as much. They can tolerate a wide range of salinities; low water volumes in dams and high summer water temperatures.

One of the greatest advantages of Golden Perch compared to Silver Perch is that they do not need purging. You can catch them straight out of the dam and eat them. That is very important to people growing fish in their farm dams who just want to catch a few today to eat for dinner tonight.