Fascinating feeding behaviour as barra tries to 'wake up' a lure on the bottom of its tank

The owner of a pet barramundi in a tank has filmed some fascinating feeding behaviour.

The owner of a pet barramundi in a tank has filmed some fascinating feeding behaviour.

Mark Rolle from Darwin’s Helifish has a tank with a couple of pet barra in his office, and first noticed the feeding technique when a peg accidentally fell into the tank.

One of the barra initially tried to eat it, but quickly spat it out.

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News_Image_File: The first time its owner saw the fascinating feeding behaviour was when a peg accidentally fell into the tank and the barra couldn't work out whether it was good to eat or not. Picture: Helifish

When it fell to the bottom of the tank the barra nudged it and then performed a rapid shaking action, seemingly in an effort to provoke the peg into moving.

Mr Rolle believes that this feeding behaviour in the wild would be used to scare small fish trying to hide on the bottom, which could then be eaten when they tried to dart away.

When a hookless lure was introduced to the tank, Mr Rolle was able to catch the ‘barra shake’ on video.

News_Image_File: The curious and hungry barra inspects a hookless lure on the bottom of its tank, before trying to wake it up with the 'barra shake'. Picture: Helifish

Barramundi feed by rapidly expanding their mouths in what is known as a ‘boof’, creating an implosion that sucks in everything nearby. If whatever they have boofed is not to their taste, they can spit it out almost as quickly.

Following the filming session the piscine film star was rewarded with a tasty mullet, which it enthusiastically gulped down.

See more from Helifish.

News_Image_File: The film star barra was happy to see a tasty mullet, which it definitely was not going to spit out. Picture: Helifish