''Coreoperca kawamebari'', commonly known as the Japanese perch, redfin perch, Japanese river perch, eye-spot perch, fire tiger or in Anglophone parts of Japan, simply the perch, is a predatory species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

native to Japan and southern Korea. They are sometimes kept as

pets A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/ cute appearances, int ...

Description

Japanese perch are greenish with red pelvic, anal and caudal fins. They have five to eight dark vertical bars on their sides. The Japanese perch can reach up to in length. They can live for up to 7 years.

Diet

The Japanese perch is a predatory species. Juveniles feed on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

, bottom invertebrate fauna, other fish fry, scuds, small shrimp and insects, while adults feed on both

invertebrates Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum ...

and smaller fish, mainly

Japanese rice fish The Japanese rice fish (''Oryzias latipes''), also known as the medaka, is a member of genus ''Oryzias'' (ricefish), the only genus in the subfamily Oryziinae. This small (up to about ) native of Japan is a denizen of rice paddies, marshes, pon ...

, Japanese minnows (''

Nipponocypris temminckii ''Nipponocypris temminckii'', the dark chub, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Xenocyprididae, the East Asian minnows or sharpbellies. It inhabits China, Japan and Korea and has a maximum length of . Etymology T ...

'', ''

Rhynchocypris ''Rhynchocypris'' is a genus of ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, chubs, true minnows and related fishes. These relatively small fishes are found in Eurasia. Species ''Rhynchocypris''contains the ...

'' spp., ''

Gnathopogon elongatus ''Gnathopogon elongatus'' is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Gnathopogon ''Gnathopogon'' is a genus of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Gobionidae, the gudgeons. The fishes in thi ...

''), Japanese smelt (''

Hypomesus nipponensis ''Hypomesus nipponensis'' (Japanese smelt, in Japanese: ''wakasagi'') is a commercial food fish native to the lakes and estuaries of northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, Korea, and Sakhalin, Khabarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai, Russia. It has ...

'') fry, small

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...

and

tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...

s. Japanese perch start eating other fish when they reach a size of around .

Reproduction

A Japanese perch usually matures in two to three years, but a Japanese perch that lives in warmer waters has the ability to reproduce in the first year of life. A single female has the potential to lay from 250 to 1,000 eggs annually. Japanese perch will journey to warmer shallow water for spawning. The primary

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

season for the Japanese perch occurs from the middle of April through approximately June, depositing their eggs on water plants or the branches of trees or shrubs immersed in the water.

Predators

The Japanese perch is a frequent prey of many fish-eating predators, such as the

great cormorant The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), also known as just cormorant in Britain, as black shag or kawau in New Zealand, formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and ...

and

common kingfisher The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of ...

References

Sinipercidae Freshwater fish of Japan Japanese perch {{Centrarchiformes-stub