The Sacramento perch (Archoplites interruptus) is a sunfish (family Centrarchidae) native to the Sacramento–San Joaquin, Pajaro, and Salinas River areas in California but widely introduced throughout the western United States.
The Sacramento perch's native habitat is in sluggish, vegetated waters of sloughs and lakes. It can reach a maximum overall length of 61 cm (24 in) and a maximum weight of 3.6 kg (8 lb), and it has been reported to live as long as six years.
A. interruptus is currently the only species of genus Archoplites Gill, 1861, but Girard had originally assigned it to Centrarchus. The generic name, Archoplites, derives from the Greek άρχος (ruler) and οπλίτης (bearing a shield).
Although called the Sacramento perch, A. interruptus is not a perch strictly speaking; the perches are members of the genus Perca in family Percidae.
Famous quotes containing the word perch:
“The perch swallows the grub-worm, the pickerel swallows the perch, and the fisherman swallows the pickerel; and so all the chinks in the scale of being are filled.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)