Pirates can be natives.
By Mr. Fish
Pirates are an ancient breed, even more so with the Pirate Perch.
Believed to be the last descendent from a larger family that roamed the Mississippi valley in ancient times, the Pirate Perch,
Aphredoderus sayanus (GILLIAMS 1824), is not only the last survivor of its genus but of its family Aphredoderidae as well.Found in the back waters of slow moving streams, ponds, swamps, and bayous in clear to murky water with abundant aquatic plant cover, it ranges the entire Atlantic Coastal Plain, from Long Island south to Southern Florida. Also found along the Northern Gulf Coast it ranges west to East Texas. In the Mississippi Valley it ranges as far north as the southern Great Lakes drainage from Western New York to Southeast Minnesota.
The Pirate Perch grows to a normal size of 4 1/2" (11.5 cm). Some specimens have been reported as large as 5 inches (13 cm.)
The Pirate Perch, like those humans it was named for, is ugly. Its head and body are a dark olive-grayish with dark spots; the underside of the head and body are yellowish to brownish. It has a long snout extending in front of the eye. It’s opercle has one very sharp spine; while its preopercle is strongly serrated. It’s fins are clouded and have no color. The Pirate Perch has a single dorsal fin with 2 to 4 spines, depending on its geographic location. The dorsal also has 10-11 soft rays immediately behind the spines. For identification purposes there is no adipose fin; the base of the tail, the caudal peduncle is deep. The caudal fin has 1 or 2 dark bars at its base. The lateral line is incomplete. Head and body scales are ctenoid.
Pirate Perches are extremely unusual fish in their maturing process. As they grow older, their anus moves forward. It starts out just in front of the anal fin in juveniles and moves with maturity to a point near the pelvic girdle in the throat region in adults. There appears to be no apparent reason for this shift. Many ichthyologists have been baffled by this unusual behavior. It is likely that it has something to do with the reproductive process.
The pirate perch hides in aquatic vegetation and debris by day and emerges in darkness to feed. It feeds on small fish, frogs, salamanders and larger insects. It is more abundant in the southern portion of its range than the northern, as it appears to thrive in the warmer waters of the southern United States.
Work Cited:
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales, and Dolphins. 1983, Knopf, Inc., New York.
Sterba, Gunther, 1966, Freshwater Fishes of the World.
This article originally appeared in the Newsletter of the Tampa Bay Aquariums Society, I think.
Last updated 22 June 2003, 1411, MF