Australian bass are highly fecund, with a reported mean fecundity ("fertility") of 440,000 eggs from the mature wild female specimens examined, and one very large specimen yielding 1,400,000 eggs. The eggs are reported as being demersal ("sinking") in natural spawning salinities, in which case estuarine vegetation such as sea grass almost certainly play an important role in "trapping" and protecting eggs. Larvae hatch in 2–3 days. Juvenile Australian bass migrate into the freshwater reaches after spending several months in estuarine waters.