Literature Review Of The Nile Perch

The waterways are connected from the Great Lakes to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which goes into the Des Plaines River and proceeds to the Mississippi River. The fish are able to travel all the way through these areas. The CBC’s broadcast on Asian carp stated that the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that joins Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River is the main focus where the fish have entered the Great Lakes.

located on the coast line of Queensland in north-eastern Australia. It is roughly the same size as

It is also known, for the prehistoric looking paddle fish. These huge fis h have been the prize possessions of many great fishermen. I once saw the enormity of a paddle fish in a picture, it was just a big as a grown man. It looked like it could have swallowed a small child whole.

Why are Asian Carp such an issue? Although they are mostly not direct predators, they eat up to one third of their body weight. Asian Carp to not eat other fish, but they eat plankton leaving native fish lower on the food chain competing for food to survive. Asian carp also reproduce rapidly and abundantly. A female Bighead Carp can carry up to one million eggs in a lifetime. In result of such profuse reproduction, Asian Carp are overpopulating the Great Lakes. Since, they are so outsized, they take up much space in the lakes. Asian Carp are also among the largest populated species. If Asian Carp continue to establish themselves permanently in

Some examples include the zebra mussel, sea lamprey, and Asian carp. The zebra mussel first came to the great lakes by traveling in the ballast water of a transoceanic vessel. Over the years, it has spread into the entire great lakes system. They are very dense with contaminants, which causes predators to stray away from them and not digest them. The zebra mussel has had many negative impacts on the ecosystem. A zebra mussel can attach themselves firmly to any solid object, which has caused water intake and discharge pipes to clog. Some other impacts include suppressing native mussels, over clarifying the water, and stripping water from various plankton that native fish eat. Sea lamprey are another invasive species in the great lakes. A sea lamprey is an eel like fish that sucks bodily fluids from other fish. They have traveled to the great lakes on their own by swimming up the Hudson River. They have contributed to the collapse of the whitefish and lake trout fisheries. Some prevention actions have been put in place and include chemical treatments of spawning

The rusty crayfish has never migrated out of the Ohio River Basin since the populations evolved in that area, and there is no evidence that native populations are migrating now. Any new area that the rusty crayfish is found in, even areas extremely close such as Wisconsin and Michigan, are due to it being transported by humans. Every area outside of the Ohio River Basin that rusty crayfish populations occur are at least connected to bodies of water that have a high level of human use. Once they are transported to a new area, they easily establish due to their versatility and lack of predators and begin to spread throughout the body of water along with connected bodies of water. The spread of the rusty crayfish is dependent not only on the availability of substrates and food sources, but also on the prevalence of predators and

“Just about any pool will contain native trout, but they disappear quickly when they see you or sense your footsteps. If you are fishing, use a red worm, walk softly, and remain hidden as you let the worm bounce down the stream into a pool or past an eddy. If you catch one, wet your hands before removing the hook so that you do not remove the fish’s protective mucous coating when you release it.”

Species have been invading the Great Lakes for a very long time. “Scientists estimate that there are more than 185 invasive species in the Great Lakes today.” One of the species that invade the Great Lakes is the Round Goby. This animal usually feeds on fish eggs, Yellow Perch, Bass, and Walleye. The Round Goby is an invasive species because it kills other species, or it can make them extinct. Another example of invasive specie is Quagga Mussel. The Quagga Mussel usually sits in lakes or oceans, building up over a long period of time, this leads to millions, and millions

There were Asian Carp found in a water mass in one of the Great Lakes. Imported from Asia, the sliver carp, will out compete native species in the Great Lakes for food. This would ruin the ecosystem in the Great Lakes because the carps will out compete the species that are native to this lake for food causing the native species to die off. In the Great Lakes commercial and sport fishing is an industry that is worth billions yearly. The silver carp that was found in the great lake could have gotten there many different ways. On is that is swam through the electric barrier that prevents carps from entering the water way. Another is that it could have been on about and carried past the barrier. Lastly, it could have been placed in the lake by

As reported by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), Eurasian milfoil, which is native to Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, was most likely accidentally introduced to the United States through ballast water, which is water from other places that is dumped into another body of water to aid in

At the bottom of the Missouri's streams lives the Lampsilis siliquoidea mussels where it lives out its life cycle. How it lives it's brilliant life cycle is first by luring a smallmouth bass over to it by copycatting the movement and the appearance of a Tartars fish tail which is actually the skin of the mussels which has over time evolved. Once the bass notices the lure and strikes the lure the muscle spews out a white cloud into the bass's mouth and gills which happen to be thousands of larvaes where they will live off the bass for nutrients. Its also safer for them to transition from larvae into juvenile mussels. After a couple of weeks the young mussels abandon the bass dropping leaving the basses unharmed and unaware of what happened making

Black sea bass are fairly stout-bodied fish, with a long dorsal fin, and large pectoral and pelvic fins. The rounded tail sometimes has a long streamer trailing out from the top edge. Each gill cover has a flat spine near the outer edge. Mature males have a fleshy dorsal hump just anterior to the dorsal fin. The background color of the black sea bass (smokey gray, brown, or bluish black) is marked with darker patches and light speckles. The belly is only slightly lighter than the sides. Young sea bass are green or brown with a dark lateral stripe running from the head to the tail. Juvenile and adult black sea bass feed upon a variety of benthic invertebrates such as rock crabs, hermit crabs, squids, and razor clams. Black sea bass adults typically

Trout that live in the ocean, and then return to fresh water to spawn take on different colors to establish their camouflage, they go from a plain silvery/whitish color to very vibrant colors when coming inland. Even trout that live in lakes have different colors that aren’t as vibrant as their stream and river cousins.

The Bighead and Silver Carp are invasive species that were imported by China to control food. They mainly affect the food supply resulting in less sport fish. There isn't a whole lot of Big Heads and Silver Carp, but some were caught in the Mississippi River.

Average Yellow Perch length (TL) ranged from 87 (age 1) to 223mm (age 5), whereas, Pumpkinseed length ranged from 47mm (age 1) to 194mm (age 6) which is similar to other findings in many lakes in North America (Scott & Crossman 1998; Pierce, Rasmussen, & Leggett 1990). Pumpkinseed growth was constant for the first 4-5 years, then began to slow, whereas, growth in Yellow perch was constant for the first 2-3 years and began to slow which is similar to other studies (Copp, et al. 2004; Lauer & Doll 2007). This may be due to maturation age when energy is allocated to reproduction (Roff 1983). Purchase et al. (2005) studied life history traits of Yellow Perch in many Ontario lakes and found that Yellow Perch mature around age 2 (Purchase et al. 2005). Maturation age in Pumpkinseed is variable between lakes, but many reach maturity in their third year (Copp et al. 2004). Our results indicate that Pumpkinseed in this population may mature later since growth doesn’t appear to slow until after age 4-5 years.