Yellow-eye mullet

Species of fish

Yellow eye mullet (Aldrichetta forsteri), also known as Coorong mullet (after the Coorong area of South Australia), conmuri, estuary mullet, Forster's mullet, freshwater mullet, pilch, pilchard, Victor Harbor mullet, yelloweye and yellow eyed mullet, are small, near shore fish found in temperate waters of southern Australia from just north of Sydney, New South Wales to Shark Bay in Western Australia, around Tasmania, and New Zealand.

Yellow eye mullet are small, near shore fish that usually reach 30–40 cm. Yellow eyed Mullet fish is grey green at the top, silver at the bottom, yellow at the bottom, bright yellow eyes. Although yellow eye fish tastes good, they are most often used as bait fish. Yellow eye mullet is considered to be the best bait for capturing larger species. Freshly caught mullet fillets, oozing blood and juice, are irresistible to almost any fish in the sea. They also have sharp heads and mouths, and the scales on the body are particularly small and thin and are very easy to fall off. Unlike most fish, it has two ridges, the first with 4 thorns and the second with 1 spine and 9 rays. These fish are olive or blue brown with silver on both sides and bright yellow or gold eyes. The fins have brown edges. They can live in water depth ranging from 0–50 m, but usually, stay in 0–10 m depth. They are most comfortable in temperature ranging from 14 to 24 degree Celsius, with the upper tolerate temperature of 28 degree Celsius and the lower limit unknown.

South west Pacific; also Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania; all over New Zealand They usually lay their eggs in summer and autumn coastal waters or in the estuary. Each fish can release up to 680,000 eggs. They may live for seven years and mature in 2–4 years. Female grow faster and are more than male.

They are omnivores that feed on sea floor debris, algae and small invertebrates, crustaceans, diatoms, molluscs, insect larvae, fish, polychaetes, coelenterates and fish eggs.