Hi all,
I was fishing upper Coomera River with a friend Sunday afternoon for bass when this little fellow decided he liked my mates lure.We've debated what we think it is and we've come to either Murray cod or Mary River cod but not being very familiar with either we need some assistance.
mary river i reckon
P.S it was returned promptly so i do apologise for the rather bad and maybe not so helpful picture.My personal thoughts were Mary but my mates thoughts was Murray originally but the Mary differs slightly in the dorsal fin area from what i understand.If it is a Mary were they stocked up the Coomera at some stage or way back when did they also range in that territory?
Eastern Cod?Just thought I'd throw a spanner in the works.
all I know you are a lucky bastard
Def not eastern cod because they are only found in parts on the Richmond and Clarence. Most prob Mary river.
Pete.
yes mary river cod (maccullochella peelii mariensis) the pelvic fins are longer than other cod species. they are protected and should be released and there was some stocked not that long ago in the coomera area. a beautiful fish
and well done. cheers bdowdy
Couldn't be a Murray cos they are only found west of the dividing rangeI think
Looks definately like mary river cod.
Not enough time in the day, to many spots to fish!
Not likely to be Murray cod 'cos they only occur naturally west of the divide. Similarly would not likely be an eastern cod because as Pete says they are a Richmond/Clarence fish by definition. Either of these options are possible however through illegal stockings/translocations.
Most likely to be Mary River cod because of extensive stocking of this species in SE Qld as Qld DPI assumes that these are the same species as the now extinct (?) Brisbane River cod, or at least a good replacement for them.
Option 4 is of course is that it is a remnant specimen of Brisbane River cod, originally found in Brisbane and Gold Coast river catchments which were likely to have been all interconnected during lowered sea levels of the last ice-age (about 15,000yrs ago). Not likely, methinks - that would be a bit like claims of the thylacine's continued existence in remote parts of Tassie. If you are fishing in very remote and inaccessible part of the Coomera it may be a possiblility but given the stockings of Mary River cod in the area I don't think so.
Pretty tough telling these species apart by eye I am told ... genetics is the only way to positively ID.
Cheers,
Martin.
Thanks people for your help,i'll run with Mary then,and yes i didn't think that the Murray cod was east of the Divide but it was the first thing that came out of my mates mouth.
!! is there any chance that the brissy river cod could have survived somewhere then? anyone know when was the last specimen recorded?Originally Posted by Martin.E
Excellent response Martin.E, you obviously know a bit about them.
I agree, very unlikely to be East Coast or Murray however, as you mentioned, they did do several translocation programs but most stocks were lost due to water temperature differences.
It is still uncertain whether any Brisbane River Cod exist. There are no visible differences between the fish and it's literally impossible to tell by just looking at them and the only way is a DNA test. As BDOWDY said, Mary River cod do tend to have longer filaments hanging down from their pectoral fins but this is only a guide as we've caught a few Murrays with unusually long filaments.
We did a bit of research on the Mary river cod in areas that were supposdly stocked with Murrays in the 1930's. Some of these cod had radio transmitters inserted into them and from that, we took a small flesh sample. All the cod tested were genuine Mary River cod.
Well done BreamR and even better for getting it back into the water quickly and unharmed.
Excellent response Martin.E, you obviously know a bit about them.
I agree, very unlikely to be East Coast or Murray however, as you mentioned, they did do several translocation programs but most stocks were lost due to water temperature differences.
It is still uncertain whether any Brisbane River Cod exist. There are no visible differences between the fish and it's literally impossible to tell by just looking at them and the only way is a DNA test. As BDOWDY said, Mary River cod do tend to have longer filaments hanging down from their pectoral fins but this is only a guide as we've caught a few Murrays with unusually long filaments.
We did a bit of research on the Mary river cod in areas that were supposdly stocked with Murrays in the 1930's. Some of these cod had radio transmitters inserted into them and from that, we took a small flesh sample. All the cod tested were genuine Mary River cod.
Well done BreamR and even better for getting it back into the water quickly and unharmed.
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