The Barcoo grunter or jade perch, Scortum barcoo, is a species of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 in the Terapontidae

Terapontidae

Grunters or tigerperches are fishes in the family Terapontidae . They are found in shallow coastal waters in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, where they live in saltwater, brackish and freshwater habitats...

 family, that is found in major rivers in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Jade perch are currently bred for aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

 trade and for human consumption.

Characteristics

A jade perch is a heavily built fish with a small head. The fish usually has a brownish-black body with darker fins. One distinguishing fact about the fish is that the anal fin has eight rays. During its lifetime the fish can grow to be about 35 cm.
They feed on fishes, crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s and molluscs,but they also feed on plants making them omnivorous. They are also thought to breed during flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

s. A jade perch is harmless to humans.

Habitat

This fish lives within many freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 sources throughout Australia. It ranges from the Gilbert River

Gilbert-Einasleigh River

The Gilbert-Einasleigh River is one of the largest river systems in northern Australia. It is located in north-central Queensland, between the Flinders River and the Mitchell River.-Description:...

 and its tributaries in northern Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, to the Cooper Creek

Cooper Creek

Cooper Creek is one of the most famous and yet least visited rivers in Australia. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its tributaries and is one of three major Queensland river systems that flow into the Lake Eyre Basin...

 and Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia, at approximately below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world...

 drainage of central Australia, and through the Barkley Basin, Limmen Bight

Limmen Bight

Limmen Bight is a bight, or large, open bay, at the western end of the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia, about 360 km east of the town of Katherine. It was named in April 1644 by Abel Tasman for one of his ships on his voyage of exploration along the northern Australian coast...

, Roper River

Roper River

The Roper River is one of the largest rivers in the Northern Territory, Australia, extending east for over 500 km to meet the sea in Limmen Bight on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is navigable for about 145 km, until the tidal limit at Roper Bar, and forms the southern boundary of the region...

 and Macarthur

MacArthur

MacArthur or Macarthur may refer to:-Geography:* Division of Macarthur, Sydney* General MacArthur, Eastern Samar, Philippines* John D...

regions of the Northern Territory. It lives in waters that are 10°C to 30°C, but it can live with waters up to 40°C.

See also

• Redfish
  Redfish
  Redfish is a common name for several species of fish. It is most commonly applied to members of the deep-sea genus Sebastes, or the reef dwelling snappers, Lutjanus. It is also applied to the slimeheads or roughies , and the alfonsinos ....
  
  
• Rose Fish
  Rose fish
  The rose fish , is also known as the ocean perch, Norway haddock, red perch, redfish, or hemdurgan; it is sometimes mistakenly called bergylt, bream, or snapper....
  
  

NOT FINAL: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/publications/pubs/translocated-fish-overview.pdf