Growth and Age
For reasons that are not clear, Australian bass are extremely slow growing. Australian bass continue the trend present in the larger native fish species of SE Australia of being very long-lived. Longevity is a survival strategy to ensure that most adults participate in at least one exceptional spawning and recruitment event, which are often linked to unusually wet 'La Niña' years and may only occur every one or two decades. Maximum age recorded so far is 22 years.
As with other Macquaria species, there is sexual dimorphism in Australian bass. Males tend to have an absolute maximum size of 1.0 kg or less, while females regularly exceed 1.0 kg and sometimes reach the maximum size of 2.5–3.0 kg. Males reach sexual maturity at around 3–4 years of age, females at 5–6 years of age.
Read more about this topic: Australian Bass
Famous quotes containing the words growth and/or age:
“For the time of towns is tolled from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Since it is the Other within us who is old, it is natural that the revelation of our age should come to us from outside—from others. We do not accept it willingly.”
—Simone De Beauvoir (1908–1986)