Silver Biddy - Strongspine

Dispatch Method:

These fish should be killed humanely by iki jime, or in an ice slurry, or by a knock to the head. The various species of silver biddies have similar brain locations.

Fish Description:

• The strongspined silver biddy have silver coloured bodies with highly protrusible jaws. Smaller specimens of this species have many ovoid brown spots along the upper flanks, but these fade and may be absent in in larger fish.
  
• The caudal (tail) fin is dusky with a darker margin posteriorly, and the ventral edge of the lower caudal fin lobe is white or bluish-white.
  
• Both jaws can protrude out and down forming a tube which is used to suck up sand or mud when the fish feeds on bottom-dwelling invertebrates including polychaete worms and crustaceans.
  
• The strongspined silver biddy is one of the largest of the genus Gerres.

Fish Distribution:

• This species occurs widely in estuaries, coastal waters and coral reef lagoons throughout the tropical Indo-West Pacific region from the Red Sea and east coast of Africa (including Madagascar and South Africa), and throughout the Indian and western Pacific Oceans as far east as the Marquesas Islands, north to the Ryukyu Islands, and south to Australia and New Caledonia.
  
• Juveniles occur in brackish waters in estuaries, while larger adult fish can be found in clear waters over sandy bottoms on coral reef flats and in coastal waters to depths of about 50 meters (150 feet).
  
• In Australia they can be encountered from Gove in Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country, and down to around Rockhampton in Queensland.

Fish Size Common Length:

15-20 cm, maximum size around 40 cm.