Australian bass
| Australian bass | |
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Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Percichthyidae |
| Genus: | Macquaria |
| Species: | M. novemaculeata |
| Binomial name | |
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Macquaria novemaculeata (Steindachner, 1866) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata) are a small to medium sized, primarily freshwater (but estuarine spawning) native fish found in coastal rivers and streams along the east coast of Australia. They are a member of the Percichthyidae family and Macquaria genus (although some recognize Percalates instead). Australian bass are an iconic, highly predatory native fish. They are an important member of the native fish faunas found in east coast river systems and an extremely popular angling species. The species was simply called perch in most coastal rivers where it was caught until the 1960s, when the name Australian bass started to gain popularity.
Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata) are closely related and very similar in appearance to estuary perch (Macquaria colonorum). Estuary perch however tend to remain in the estuarine reaches or (occasionally) the extreme lower freshwater reaches.
Until very recently (i.e. late 2000s), Australian bass and estuary perch were placed in the Macquaria genus — one of a number of Australian genera in the Percichthyidae family — along with two species of native perch from the Murray-Darling Basin, golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) and Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica). This revision to their taxonomy occurred in the late 1970s. Prior to that, Australian bass and estuary perch were placed in a separate genus, Percalates. (Interestingly, the generic name Percalates is a compound of the generic names Perca and Lates, and arose from an early, erroneous taxonomic belief that Australian bass were an old world perch related to barramundi (Lates calcarifer)).
Results from recent research using genetic MtDNA analysis indicate Australian bass and estuary perch do belong in a separate genus to golden perch and Macquarie perch, and has resulted in Australian bass and estuary perch being placed back into a resurrected Percalates genus.
A rather surprising and unexpected finding of this research is that the Percalates genus (i.e. Australian bass and estuary perch) appears to be genetically closer to the Maccullochella genus (i.e. Murray cod and other cod species) than the remnant Macquaria genus is (i.e. golden perch and Macquarie perch).
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