Silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) is a medium sized freshwater fish endemic to the Murray-Darling river system in south-eastern Australia. The scientific name comes from an aboriginal name for the species recorded by Major Mitchell on his 1832 expedition. It is not a perch, being a grunter in the family Terapontidae. It is the largest of the Australian grunters, capable of growing to 40 cm and 8 kg, more usually around 30 cm and up to 1.5 kg.
The silver perch is the only major representative of the Terapontidae family in the southern Murray-Darling system, compared to northern tropical systems where terapontid species are common. Another small terapontid, the spangled perch (Leiopotherapon unicolor), does occur sporadically in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.
Read more about Silver Perch: Description, Diet, Distribution, Fishing, Spawning and Biology, Conservation
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“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)