Distribution

Yellow perch can be found in freshwaters of North America from Nova Scotia south along the Atlantic coast to Florida, west from Pennsylvania to Missouri, northwest to Montana, north to Great Slave Lake, southwest to James Bay and east to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It has been introduced widely in the south and western U.S. and has spread to southern British Columbia. Yellow perch are absent in Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland. It is occasionally found in brackish water along the Atlantic coast.

Physical Characteristics

The yellow perch has the following characteristics:

• its colour ranges from black-green to olive to golden brown on the back, extending down the sides in tapered bars;
• the rest of the sides are yellowish becoming grey to white on the belly;
• it has two dorsal fins (on the back), the first one has 13 to 15 sharp spines, the second has only one spine followed by soft rays;
• the pelvic fins with one spine sit forward on the belly almost directly below the pectoral fins;
• the pectoral fins are amber-coloured and transparent, whereas the pelvics are yellow to white and opaque;
• eyes are yellow to green;
• the scales feel rough to the touch;
• the colour of a spawning male fish intensifies; its lower fins can become orange to bright red;
• young yellow perch are first transparent, then silvery or pale green.
• The yellow perch can grow to 1.9 kg (4.2 lb) but in Nova Scotia it rarely exceeds 30 cm (12 in) and 450 g (1 lb).

Facts About Yellow Perch

Occasionally yellow perch are found with the unusual colouring of grey-blue or red and the absence of dark bars on the side.

The yellow perch has been called "a good bold-biting fish," "the most extravagantly handsome of fishes," a ravager of all smaller fish," and "bait- stealing little devils".

Students studying the anatomy of bony fishes most often use the yellow perch.

Natural History

The yellow perch is a schooling, shallow water fish that can adapt to a wide variety of warm or cool habitats. They are found in large lakes, small ponds, or gentle rivers but are most abundant in clear, weedy lakes that have muck, sand, or gravel bottoms. They prefer summer temperatures of 21 to 24øC. Yellow perch feed on aquatic insects, crustaceans, and a variety of fishes and their eggs.

Spawning occurs from April through July, but usually during May in Nova Scotia, at water temperatures of 9 to 12øC. The adults move into shallow areas of lakes or up into tributary streams. Males are first to arrive and the last to leave. Yellow perch spawn at night or in early morning, most often in areas where there is debris or vegetation on the bottom.

The female perch sheds her eggs in a long jelly-like spiral or accordion-folded strand. Several males fertilize the eggs during spawning. The egg mass can be as much as 2.1 m (7 ft) long, 51 to 102 mm (2 to 4 in) wide and weigh 0.9 kg (2 lb)!

Females produce an average of 23,000 eggs but have been known to shed up to 109,000 eggs. The egg masses are semi-buoyant and attach to the vegetation or bottom material. They receive no parental care and can be cast ashore during storms or eaten by predators. Yellow perch eggs are 3.5 mm in diameter and hatch in 8 to 21 days, depending on the temperature. Newly-hatched perch are about 5 mm long.

Young perch grow quickly and remain near the shore during their first summcr, swimming in large schools that often include other species.

Perch in Nova Scotia waters do not grow as large as those living in the warmer, larger, or more productive habitats of central Canada. In general, northern populations grow more slowly but live longer, and females grow faster than males.

Adults move in schools farther offshore than the young. They move between deeper and shallow water in response to changing food supplies, seasons, and temperatures. Perch feed in the morning and evening, taking food in open water or off the bottom. At night they rest on the bottom.

Yellow perch remain active and feed during the winter.

Yellow perch can outbreed and out-feed speckled trout or other fish in a lake. This can sometimes lead to an overpopulation of small, stunted perch (less than 15 cm (6 in)).

Yellow perch are eaten by other fish such as smallmouth bass, chain pickerel and lake trout. They are also taken by birds like mergansers, loons, kingfishers, and gulls.

Published With Funding from the Canada-Nova Scotia Cooperation Agreement on Economic Diversification, Resource Competitiveness Program.