Sea Bass (Barramundi)

General discription:
The Asian Sea bass (Lates calcarifer), also known as Barramundi in Australia, is a catadromous, protandrous hermaphrodites and euryhaline fish. Barramundi is a loanword from an Australian Aboriginal language meaning "large-scaled river fish".It is also known as giant perch, giant sea perch, Australian seabass, and by a variety of names in other languages like in Thai language as pla kapong, as koduva in the Tamil language, kalaanji in Malayalam and Gaaroos in Arabi Barramundi is both caught commercially and produced by aquaculture. It is renowned as a prized sport fish in northern Australia and is capable of reaching up to six and a half feet in length, can live for twenty years, and can weigh in excess of 50 kilograms (kg) (Shaklee et al. 1993).

Habitate:
Barramundi are demersal, inhabiting estuaries, associated coastal waters, lagoons and in lower reaches of rivers. They prefer slow-moving clear to turbid water in rivers, creeks, swamps and estuaries, but are adaptable and may often be found around near shore islands and reefs usually within a temperature range of 26−30°C. They spend two to three more years in estuarine areas until they mature, then migrate to the sea water around the mouth of a river or lagoon for spawning. Larvae and juveniles live in the sea grass bed in coastal areas for about six months, attaining a size of about 2 to 5 inches. The fish migrate to freshwater when they grow bigger and some mature barramundi live in estuaries and associated coastal waters or in the lower reaches of rivers.

Distribution:
This species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia(Greenwood 1976; Tucker et al. 2002). Sea bass has been introduced for aquaculture purposes to Iran, Guam, French Polynesia, the United States of America (Hawaii, Massachusetts) and Palestine.