Biology of the Nile perch (Lates niloticus, Linnaeus 1758)

This review article sheds the light on the most important freshwater fish species this is the Nile perch (Lates niloticus L.), which is wide-spread in African waters such as the Nile river basin, Chad river, Niger river, Senegal river as well as in Australia. Lake Victoria (the main source for the Nile river) is considered as the most famous region for abundance of the Nile perch (FishBase, 2004). The importance of the Nile perch is represented in its nutritional values that have attracted many traders and investors to benefit from it as a commercial commodity, so many factories have been established to produce varieties of nutritional commodities, such as fillets, sausage and burger in addition to commercial by-products commodities such as leather, fishmeal and oil.