[African Snook, Victoria Perch; Mbuta, Mputa (Luo); Sangara, Sankara,
Chenku (Tanzania); Capitaine (French Africa); Am'kal (Egypt, Sudan);
Giwan Ruwa (Hausa (water elephant)); Lates niloticus]
This very large perch is native to the large rivers of East Africa, Central Africa and Ghana in West Africa. It has been introduced to Lake Victoria with considerable disruption of the lake ecology. It can grow to 6 feet 6 inches and weigh 440 pounds. Nile Perch is a very important food fish in the parts of Africa where it is found, and is also exported to Europe. IUCN Red List LC (Least Concern)- considered a serious invasive in some regions. Photo by Daiju Azuma distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v4.0 International.
More on the Perch Families
Buying: This fish is not available in North America, but suitable substitutes are available. It is fairly available in Europe.
Prep: You can follow the details for Baramundi.
Subst: This fish is very similar to and closely related to the Indo-West Pacific Baramundi, which is also a large river fish. Baramundi is quite available in the Asian Markets here in Southern California as "Giant Perch", and is farmed in a number of countries. If not available, Walleye can be used in North America or Zander in Europe, though Nile Perch is often available there.
sf_nilepchz 180731 - www.clovegarden.com