Siniperca chuatsi - Chinese spotted perch

toffee

Anyone tried this one? It is very good tasting fish and grows pretty fast.

The mandarin fish or Chinese perch (Siniperca chuatsi) is a freshwater fish which lives in China. Its back is yellow, green or brown with many irregular black spots and patches. It has a big mouth and small round scales. Mandarin fish live in still water and move to deep water in winter. It should not be confused with the unrelated saltwater mandarinfish.

They can tolerate cooler water temperatures down to at least 65 degrees F., and the water should probably not be warmer than 75 degrees F.

The only other name they also go by is Chinese Spotted Perch. They are not aggressive like Cichlids, but they will eat anything that will fit in their mouths. They grow to be 20" long and then even bigger!

Quote:

Family: Percichthyidae (Temperate perches)
Order: Perciformes (perch-likes)
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
FishBase name: Chinese perch
Max. size: 70.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; Ref. 56557); max. published weight: 8,000 g (Ref. 56557); max. reported age: 9 years
Environment: benthopelagic; freshwater; pH range: 7.0 – 7.4; dH range: 2 - 5; depth range 10 – ? m
Climate: temperate; 4 – 22°C; 53°N - 34°N, 113°E - 142°E
Importance: fisheries: commercial; aquaculture: commercial; price category: not marketed/unknown
Resilience: Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (tm=1-2)
Vulnerability: High vulnerability (56.80), based on Lmax and K (Ref. 59153)
Distribution:
Gazetteer Asia: Amur River basin and China.
Biology: Inhabits rivers (Ref. 26334). A demersal piscivore which has very specialized feeding habits--as soon as it starts feeding, it feeds solely on fry of other fish species. Typical of a stalking predator, it relies on vision for following the movement of prey before leaping forward and snapping at the victim. Its prey consist mostly of diurnal fishes whose eyes have color vision and high acuity but cannot function at night. The habitat of the Chinese perch is usually rich in macrophytes and might be very turbid during rainy season (Ref. 28033).
Red List Status: Not Evaluated (Ref. 57073)
Dangerous: harmless
Coordinator: Arratia, Gloria
Main Ref: Bogutskaya, N.G. and A.M. Naseka. 1996. (Ref. 13397)

janethesselberth

I guess the question would be whether you can acquire fingerlings. I'm completely unfamiliar with this one, but it sounds interesting....but what does "High Vulnerability" mean?

Also, will it take pelleted feed? Since it feeds exclusively on the fry of other fish, it could be hard to pellet-train.

janethesselberth

http://www.fao.org/fishery/culturedspec ... ca_chuatsi

...better start raising minnows, too. Sounds like they are currently farmed using live food.

toffee

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... hp?t=38369

live food would probably be better but some folks in this country tried with dry stuff and worked.

Jaymie

that's a pretty tight temperature range too (18o - 24oC)

Outbackozzie

That temp range and the requirement for live feed only, makes it a bit hard work for AP - only because there are so many native, readily available and suitable fish

Would be a cool looking aquarium fish though :cheers:

veggie boy

That fish interestingly looks a fair bit like barra in shape of body and head. Similarities stop there though in many respects.

RupertofOZ

Same "class", same "order"... different "family" ...

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Siniperca chuatsi - Chinese spotted perch

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