Silver perch

The silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) is a medium-sized freshwater fish of the family Terapontidae endemic to the Murray-Darling river system in south-eastern Australia.

The silver perch is a large grunter with a small head, small eyes, a small mouth at the end of a pointed ‘beak-like’ snout. The species is streamlined and laterally compressed, with a spiny dorsal fin of medium height, angular soft dorsal and anal fins and a forked tail. Large specimens become very deep bodied with a large hump behind the head. In terms of colouration, they are dark grey to silvery greyish-brown on the back, silver-grey on the sides, with darker scale margins giving a checkered pattern; the belly is whitish; the dorsal and caudal fins are dark, the pelvic fins white.