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Nile perch

 
Animal Encyclopedia: Nile perch
 
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Lates niloticus

FAMILY

Centropomidae

TAXONOMY

Lates niloticus Linnaeus, 1758, Egypt.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: African snook; French: Capitaine; German: Nilbarsch; Spanish: Perca del Nilo.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Total length 76 in (193 cm); weight 441 lb (200 kg). Body large, elongate, and robust. Color silvery, with grayish blue along back and grayish silver along flank and belly. Caudal fin and portion of pectoral fin black to dark gray. There are 7–8 spines and 10–14 soft rays in the dorsal fin; the caudal fin is rounded. Free edge of operculum bears a large spine.

DISTRIBUTION

Africa, in fresh and occasionally brackish waters. Present in the Rift Lakes of East Africa, including Lakes Albert, Rudolph, and Tana. Introduced into Lake Victoria and others within and outside of the region, usually with catastrophic results for native fish faunas. Also occurs in major river systems including the Chad (and Lake Chad), Congo, Nile, Senegal, and Volta. Present in Lake Mariout, a brackish water body outside Alexandria, Egypt, near the Nile River.

HABITAT

Large lakes and major rivers and their larger tributaries; also occurs in channels and irrigation canals, brackish-water lakes, and estuaries. Larger adults prefer deeper water, smaller fishes are found in the shallows.

BEHAVIOR

Swims in the water column, but may also associate with structure. Generally solitary.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Highly voracious predator of fishes, especially freshwater herrings in its native range, but also of cichlid fishes. Smaller fishes feed upon crustaceans and insects in shallow water.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Maturity comes in two to three years; larger females reach maturity later than smaller males. The spawning season varies with latitude, temperature, and type of water body, and ranges from February to November, although shorter seasons have been reported. Presumably migrates to a specific site to court and spawn. Eggs are scattered over the bottom or in the water column, and are buoyant. Larvae are pelagic, there is no parental care.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not listed by the IUCN, but could be vulnerable to commercial overfishing in its native range.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

An important commercial and subsistence food fish and game fish, raised by aquaculture for food and stocking. Stocking outside

its natural range is greatly discouraged. Introduction of this species into Lake Victoria resulted in the decimation of most of a highly diverse and evolved endemic species flock of cichlid fishes, in addition to the loss of other species endemic to that great lake. Similar effects reported elsewhere.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Nile perch
 
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Large food and game fish (family Latidae) found in the Nile and other African rivers and lakes. The Nile perch (Lates niloticus) has a large mouth and is greenish or brownish above, silvery below. It grows to about 6 ft (1.8 m) and weighs 300 lbs (140 kg). It has a slender body, a protruding lower jaw, a rounded tail, and two dorsal fins. Other species in the same family are found in African river systems and in Asian and Australian estuaries and coastal waters. The members of the family are sometimes classified with snooks (family Centropomidae).

For more information on Nile perch, visit Britannica.com.

 
Wikipedia: Nile perch
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Nile perch
detail of a head
detail of a head
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Percoidei
Family: Latidae
Genus: Lates
Species: L. niloticus
Binomial name
Lates niloticus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Nile perch (Lates niloticus) is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is widespread throughout much of the Afrotropic ecozone, being native to the Congo, Nile, Senegal, Niger, and Lake Chad, Volta, Lake Turkana and other river basins. It also occurs in the brackish waters of Lake Maryut in Egypt. Originally described as Labrus niloticus, among the marine wrasses, the species has also been referred to as Centropomus niloticus. Common names include African snook, Capitaine, Victoria perch (a misleading trade name, as the species is not native to Lake Victoria), and a large number of local names in various African languages, such as the Luo name Mbuta.

Nile perch in comparison to a man.

Lates niloticus is silver in colour with a blue tinge. It has a distinctive dark black eye, with a bright yellow outer ring. One of the largest freshwater fish, it reaches a maximum length of nearly two metres (more than six feet), weighing up to 200 kg (440 lb). Mature fish average 121-137 cm (48-54 in), although many fish are caught before they can grow this large.[1]

Adult Nile perch occupy all habitats of a lake with sufficient oxygen concentrations, while juveniles are restricted to shallow or nearshore environments. A fierce predator that dominates its surroundings, the Nile perch feeds on fish (including its own species), crustaceans, and insects; the juveniles also feed on zooplankton.

Nile perch have been introduced to many other lakes in Africa, including Lake Victoria (see below) and the artificial Lake Nasser. The IUCN's (World Conservation Union) Invasive Species Specialist Group considers Lates niloticus one of the world's 100 worst invasive species. The state of Queensland in Australia levies heavy fines on anyone found in possession of a living Nile perch, since it competes directly with the native Barramundi, which is similar but does not reach the same size as the Nile perch.

The species is of great commercial importance as a food fish. The Nile perch is also popular with sport anglers as it attacks artificial fishing lures and is also raised in aquaculture.

Lake Victoria introduction

The introduction of this species to Lake Victoria is one of the most commonly cited examples of the negative effects invasive alien species can have on ecosystems.

The Nile perch was introduced to Lake Victoria in East Africa in the 1950s[2], and since then it has been fished commercially. It is attributed with causing the extinction or near-extinction of several hundred native species, but as Nile Perch stocks decrease due to commercial fishing, at least some of them are making a comeback. Initially, the Nile perch's diet consisted of native cichlids, but with decreasing availability of this prey, it now consumes mainly small shrimp and minnows.

The fish's introduction to Lake Victoria, while ecologically negative, has stimulated the establishment of large fishing companies there. In 2003 Nile perch earned 169 million euro in sales to the EU. The long-term outlook is less clear, as overfishing is now reducing Lates niloticus populations.

The alteration of the native ecosystem has also had disruptive socioeconomic effects on local communities bordering the lake. Large-scale fishing operations, while earning millions of dollars from their exported Lates niloticus catch, have displaced many local people from their traditional occupations in the fishing trade and brought them into the cash economy or - before the establishment of export-oriented fisheries - turned them into economic refugees. At least initially[verification needed], nets strong enough to hold adult Nile perch could not be manufactured locally and had to be imported for a high price.

The introduction of Nile perch have had additional ecological effects on shore. Native cichlids were traditionally sun-dried, but Nile perch have a higher fat content than cichlids so instead need to be smoked to avoid spoiling. This has led to an increased demand for firewood in a region already hard-hit by deforestation, soil erosion and desertification.

The Academy Award-nominated documentary Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper (a French-Austrian-Belgian production, 2004) deals with the damage that has been caused by Nile Perch introduction, including the import of weapons and ammunition in cargo planes from Europe that then export Nile perch, exacerbating conflict and misery in the surrounding regions. Darwin's Nightmare is highly controversial, however, to those who consider the introduction of Nile perch beneficial. They accuse the documentary of deliberately implying causalities that do not actually exist. Even among critics of the introduction, the focus on spectacular but only loosely correlated recent issues - the neglect of the actual ecologic and economic upheaval caused by L. niloticus proliferation in Lake Victoria.

Regardless of opinion, it appears that the trophic web of Lake Victoria has been drastically altered through the introduction of this novel near-top-level predator. While the lake ecosystem is slowly finding to a new equilibrium, the former state of fisheries on Lake Victoria probably cannot be brought back, regardless of whether this is considered positive or negative. Another income is the sportfishing tourism in the region of Uganda and Tanzania which aim to catch this fish.

See also

References

  1. ^ Wood, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. Sterling Pub Co Inc (1983), ISBN 978-0851122359
  2. ^ Pringle, Robert (2005), "The Nile perch in Lake Victoria: local responses and adaptations", BNet, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3103/is_4_75/ai_n29239362/, retrieved on 2009-06-13 
 This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Animal Encyclopedia. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nile perch".  Read more

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