Fun Yellowfin Bream Facts For Kids

The yellowfin bream is one of the famous and well-known bream species in Australia and the Indo-West Pacific range. These species are often confused with the black bream which is found along the southern coastal areas. These two species have almost the same physical features when commercial and recreational fishermen catch them.

They are found in the eastern coastal areas of Australia and are also known as eastern black bream. The length and size of these Australian breams of New South Wales increase very slowly and they are categorized among the slow-growing bream.

On the basis of distribution, they are found on the east coast of Australia, in Queensland, Victoria. These species are protandrous and can change from male to female during the spawning period. They are found eating oysters, small fish, and crabs.

These carnivores are very famous among fishing fish and are eaten by people. Many of the recreational and commercial fishing companies fish commercially specifically in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. This bream species lives up to an age of 15-20 years and is on the list of Least Concern by the IUCN.

If you enjoy reading about this commercial and recreational fishing fish, then do read some interesting facts about other fish such as milkfish and codfish.

Yellowfin Bream Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a yellowfin bream?

The yellowfin breams' scientific name is Acanthopagrus australis. They are also known as surf bream, sea bream, silver bream, and eastern black bream as they are more often found along the east coast of Australia. They are a famous bream among recreational fishermen for fishing due to their fighting capacity in comparison to their weight.

What class of animal does a yellowfin bream belong to?

The yellowfin bream, Acanthopagrus australis, belongs to the class of Actinopterygii and the family Sparidae. They belong to the genus Acanthopagrus. These surf breams are mostly confused with the black bream – Acanthopagrus butcheri, which is also known as southern bream – because these two species have similar physical features.

How many yellowfin breams are there in the world?

The exact number of these Australian surf bream species found on the east coast has not been counted and is unknown globally.

Where does a yellowfin bream live?

The yellowfin bream fish is native to Australia, but its distribution range is throughout the Indo-West Pacific region. They are rarely found on the southern coasts as those areas are predominantly taken by other bream species, such as the black bream, Acanthopagrus butcheri.

They are mostly spotted near the east coast range, from Townsville in northern Queensland to Mallacoota and the Gippsland Lakes region range in eastern Victoria. They are also found in the east-southeast coastal areas of New South Wales.

What is a yellowfin bream's habitat?

The yellowfin bream, Acanthopagrus australis, is a freshwater marine fish that can be found in deep rivers and lake beds. These bream surf or are even seen in estuaries. Mostly, they are spotted near surf beaches, inshore rocky reefs, headlands, sandflat areas with fallen trees, boat ramps, and oyster farms.

Who do yellowfin breams live with?

There is no specific evidence available about the yellowfin breams living in groups or in solitary.

How long does a yellowfin bream live?

The yellowfin bream age differs from 15-20 years old. They are very slow-growing marine bream species among the breams found in Australia. The black bream can live up to 29 years of age.

How do they reproduce?

The yellowfin bream breeds during the winter season and is commonly found along the river mouth laying eggs. These eggs hatch after two to three days and, for four weeks, spend their time as pelagic larvae.

Most of these young new larvae are found along the seagrass fields in deep estuaries. These popular surf breams of New South Wales have both testicular and ovarian tissue which is separated by connectivity tissue.

For this reason, these marine fish species are called protandrous, which means that the male fish becomes the female after producing eggs or during their breeding season. They are also slow-growing marine species and their length increases up to 4 in (10 cm) in a year.

What is their conservation status?

The yellowfin bream are the most famous in commercial fishing and recreational fishing but are still on the list of Least Concern due to their huge spawning capacity.

Yellowfin Bream Fun Facts

What do yellowfin bream look like?

The famous New South Wales sea bream is often confused with the black bream as these two species are the same just vary in physical and native aspects. They can easily be distinguished by their ventral and anal fins.

They have beautiful yellow-colored fins, which also give them their name. The color of these fish varies from silver, dark bronze to brown depending upon the place they live.

They have a fork like a caudal fin of silver and yellow color. The dorsal fin has many small spines with yellow and silver strikes.

Their pectoral fins are small and very light silver in color, which appears to be transparent. They have some yellow, bronze, and black lateral lines from the tip of their silver scales to the caudal din.

Most of the sea bream found in freshwater are bronze and brown in color, whereas, those found in estuaries are silver in color. The yellowfin bream size increases gradually, which takes five years to be a mature sea bream.

Around their black eyes, they have a yellow bronze color in a circular shape. They have canine teeth, which makes them more dangerous and harmful.

How cute are they?

No, these fish species do not look cute with their canine teeth. The color of this bream fish is indeed very attractive with a shimmering shine shade of yellow and silver.

How do they communicate?

There is no evidence available about their communication skills, but generally, fish use physical gestures by moving their fins and using sound signals if they are at a great distance.

How big is a yellowfin bream?

The yellowfin bream is one of the marine fish species which grows slowly. They are 8.7-23 in (22-58.5 cm) in length. At the age of five, these species generally grow up to 8.7-9 in (22-23 cm) long.  An adult can grow up to 23 in (58.5 cm). The drum fish is smaller than these fish.

How fast can a yellowfin bream swim?

There is no evidence available in the context of how fast they swim.

How much does a yellowfin bream weigh?

The yellowfin bream fish can weigh up to 70-112 oz (2-3 kg),

What are the male and female names of the species?

These species do not have any names for their male and female counterparts as they are protandrous.

What would you call a baby yellowfin bream?

The baby of yellowfin bream is called pelagic larvae or juvenile fish.

What do they eat?

The yellowfin bream nutrition consists of small fish, invertebrates, oysters, shellfish, crabs, and marine worms. They are carnivores similar to skate fish and demersal, mostly found along the sea or lake beds.

They are more commonly found feeding on oysters, hence, can be found near the oyster farm. The yellowfin bream eating habit differs from being a fry until they grow into an adult.

Are they dangerous?

No such evidence of them causing any harm to humans is evident, but these fish are carnivores and eat most marine small fish. While humans have to be careful while handling them as they have many spines on their dorsal fin which can cause injury, they are not poisonous.

Would they make a good pet?

As these bream species are commercial catches of Australian recreational fishermen. As they are carnivores, they are not ideal to keep in aquariums and tanks as their living habitat varies throughout their life.

Did you know...

This bream species was first described by the German-British naturalist Albert Gunther in 1859.

The yellowfin bream are well known to crossbreed with the black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) near the southern end of their distribution in southern New South Wales and East Gippsland.

The commercial and nominal catch of these species will increase eventually after changes are made to their legal minimum size and length, specifically in the Queensland part of the eastern Australian stock.

Only two-thirds of the total commercial catch is evident from New South Wales in comparison to eastern Australian yellowfin bream stock. The commercial catch in parts of Victoria is much less than in eastern Australian stock.

This has also affected the stock dynamics of eastern Australian stocks.

Whereas, there is no commercial fishing in Mallacoota and Gippsland lakes. Many recreational fishing efforts are made under the rules for these breams with a minimum legal size of 11 in (28 cm).

Mostly, yellowfin breams that are seven or nine years old are the target catch of the commercial fishing market. The ideal length around this age is 11 in (28 cm). There are many different yellowfin bream recipes available on different internet resources.

Can you eat yellowfin bream?

Yes, you can eat yellowfin bream. They are commercial fish in the Australian fishing market.

What is the biggest bream ever caught in Australia?

The biggest bream ever caught in Australia was the black bream, Acanthopagrus butcheri, with a weight of  88.5 oz (2.5 kg). This fish was caught in St. Georges Basin while recreational fishing.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these fluke fish interesting facts and sucker fish facts for kids.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable yellowfin bream coloring pages.