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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature: Perch


California is a large state, the 3rd largest in the U.S.A., and depending on where you go, can range broadly in habitat type and, also, climate. For this reason, California plays host to a huge variety of fish.

Fishes are aquatic vertebrates that have fins, gills and scales. Gills are the part of the respiratory system that provide surface area for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide under water. Fish are ectotherms, commonly referred to as 'cold-blooded', meaning their temperature is regulated by the temperature of their environment. They have a range of diets, being herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores. Some fish reproduce by laying eggs, while others reproduce by bearing live young.

California fish species reside in freshwater and coastal/marine waters. Freshwater fish are fishes that live at least part, if not all, of their lives in bodies of fresh water with a salinity of less than .05%. Forty-one percent of all known fish species are found in freshwater.
black perch are found in the freshwater rivers of California The Sacramento Perch is the only member of the family Centrarchidae that naturally occurs west of the Rocky Mountains. Evolving in isolation from the sunfish of the eastern United States, it kept the more primitive body form that closely resembles its fossilized forbears' body plans. In the California that existed before the Europeans arrived, these fish inhabited the sloughs, slow-water rivers, and small lakes of the Central Valley, as well as Clear Lake in Lake County and the Paiaro and Salinas Rivers.

The Sacramento Perch  served as a staple food fish, and, before game fish from the eastern United States were introduced into the state's waters in the late 1800's, the Sacramento Perch was a primary food fish for the early settlers. Variable water quality due to alternating periods of flooding and drought in California habitats selected for the ability of this fish to withstand extreme salinities, temperatures, and alkalinities that exclude other fish, including introduced centrarchids.
The Sacramento Perch takes advantage of different food resources during its life cycle instead of specializing in one certain feeding niche. Feeding takes place at any time of the day, with peaks in the dusk and dawn hours. The adults stalk their prey until they are close enough to inhale it by rapidly expanding their buccal cavities. They are most successful in habitats were they can take on the role of top predator. When stocked in small lakes and ponds, adults continue to feed on aquatic insects when small fish and crustaceans are scarce.

Nevertheless, Sacramento Perch will feed opportunistically when presented with an abundance of any type of food such as aquatic beetles, or small fish. Young fish feed primarily on small bottom or plant-dwelling crustaceans and move to larger insect larvae as they grow. Extensive beds of emergent aquatic vegetation are important in providing food and cover for the young.
perch are one of Californias many freshwater fish Sacramento Perch become sexually mature by their second or third year and spawn during late May and early June when water conditions needed for egg development are at their best. Unlike other sunfish, males don't bother to build a nest for the female to lay the eggs in. Instead, several males converge near heavily vegetated shallow areas near favorable spawning sites. Then each male stakes out a chosen territory for a female to lay eggs in.

During the spawning act, the females simply scatter eggs over the territory as the male fertilizes them. Some researchers have observed the Sacramento Perch vigorously guarding the eggs from potential predators, while others have noted little or no post-spawning care of the eggs. In the evolutionary absence of other, competing centrarchid species in California, the Sacramento Perch probably had no need to develop the complex nest-guarding behavior that sunfishes perform.
 
 
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