Perch Biology?

[WVBoy]

Any experts out there that know the average growth rate of a perch? Just out of curiosity.

[grumpymoe]

NOPE!! its generally accepted that growth rate is directly related to annual water temperatures, and availability of food. far northern lakes, with their short summers, have much slower growth rates than lakes in the southern part of north america. a 5lb fish from the north, maybe twice as old, or older, than its southern cousin. stocking practises have shown that some waters have unusually high growth rates in the first and second years, while others are much slower. this is also due to the high abundance of natural forage. hope this answers your question. NOT A BIOLOGIST, JUST AN AVID FISHERMAN/READER  grumpymoe

[WVBoy]

It helps. I guess the same rules apply to nearly all species of fish.

[Little Brown Dog]

Grumpymoe is right, depends on the lake.  Here in VT there is a reservoir that has an overpopulation of perch.  Their growth stops for the majority of them in the 6-7" range.  Fish could be three years old and 6.5" and some could be 10 years old and the same size.

[Germ]

I heard the 20 inch Perch Grows Exceedling fast but he lives for 300 years and only feeds for 1 day every 23 years....but in that day he eats as much as a african lion does. I also have a bridge in London for sale if anyone is interested?

[Germ]

Well get on that will ya....We want some monsters on our lines!

[RIVERRAT2]

perch growth----lives about 8 years in n.y.
this is average,the lake,food,and what other fish live with them will change this
1st year----about 3in long
2nd year---about 6in long
3rd year--about 8in long and about 1/4lb
4th year--about 10in long,about 1/2lb [ADULT]
5th year--about 12in long,about 3/4lb
6th year--about 14in long,about 1-lb
you can tell how old the fish is by the scale rings[like a tree]
hope this helps
rat

[toothfish]

    I saw a factoid put out by the state of Minn. that a 13 in. perch in Minn. is 18 years old.

[hali-man]

See the In-Fisherman annual Ice Fishing magazine.
There's an article titled The Truth About Jalopy Perch.
It's not biologically correct (Cider!), but interesting.

[2r3d]

Just speaking of Wisconsin's perch..... 3 yrs. to reach 6-7 inches. after that they grow about an inch each year after the first 3 yr. growth spurt...... so a 10 inch perch would be 6 yrs. old. And a 14 in perch would be about a 10 year old fish. I am raising perch for a hobby in a 1 acre pond. Here it's all a different story. from eggs in April of 2003  to 6-7 inch skinny perch in Sept. of 2003 and by Oct. of 2004 they are chunky 8+ inchs. also had a few that measured 9 3/4 inches. This fast growth is due to feeding 25 lbs. of pellet food for 1 1/2 hours just before nighttime. I cleaned 2,150 of them so far and weighted then all out before and after the filleting. 50 perch weighted on avg. 10 1/4 lbs. and the fillets on avg. weighted 4 1/2 lbs. giving me a 42 % yield on the fish. It also came out to 5 eight inch perch to a pound. They sure do taste great without any PCB's or Mercury.

[jimski2]

The Canadian Fish Guys did a study on farm raising perch using water from a power plant to maintain and promote optimal growth. They grew 8 inch perch from eggs in 8 months, that's with steady warm water, all the food they need and no predation or competition. With our goofy conservation morals, we release small fish that compete for the forage. The best thing with perch are to take as many that you can. The survivors will have more food and grow bigger. Coneseus Lake had big perch when we had a lot of walleye and then they stunted down when the walleye disappeared. Then we had too many small perch and we quit fishing there. Some regulations and the concentration on "big fish" hurt the fisherys.