How to take care of your pet fish


Hemmingway's Nile Perch

About 20 years ago I was window shoppingdecimated 95 per cent of the local fish
in the lovely little village of Longstocks.
Melford in Suffolk, England. The mileUnlike the stuffed one I saw originally,
long main street of mainly Georgianwhich had yellowed with age, the Nile
shops is an antique collector's heaven.Perch is silver in colour with a blue
Towards the top of the village is atinge. They can grow to over two meters
specialist shop selling stuffed animals,and weigh over 200Kg (440 lb). As food
birds and fish which are not usually mythe Nile Perch is a very important fish
type of thing.and is raised in aquaculture for this
My eye was caught by a gigantic stuffedreason, as well as being avidly fished
fish which I did not recognise, so I hadfor by local fishermen. They are a bit
to go in to have a look. The inscriptionoily which makes them difficult to dry,
on the very old glass case showed thatbut have a pleasant and distinctive
this rather ugly, but immense fish was aflavour.
Nile Perch of 124 lb in weight, andMany of Africa's large river basins and
caught by Ernest Hemmingway himself.lakes support this fish including Lake
Having hooked this monster it took himMaryut in Egypt which has brackish
over two and a half hours to land it onwater, and Lake Nasser. Many people
the shore of the Nile, the boat he wascatch the biggest fish of their lives in
in being too small to safely land it inLake Nasser and it is considered a
any other way.centre of sporting excellence by big
My imagination being caught up with thisgame fishermen the world over. The
amazing creature, which looks ratherlargest recorded Nile Perch caught from
like a cross between a fat pike, a perchLake Nasser weighed 176 kg (392 lb) and
with enormous and sharp teeth and afishing from the shore with a lure can
freshwater shark, I could not but helpbring in fish of 20 to 100 lb.
myself researching into this phenomenonThe larger Nile Perch tend to be in the
of the Nile.large Egyptian lakes if you are a keen
I discovered that this fish, native ofspecimen hunter, however one of these
Africa, is one of the most sought afterdays I hope to catch one of these
by anglers, it being easily the largestincredible fish on the River Nile
freshwater fish in the world, with onlyitself, just like Hemmingway's Nile
the rare manseer in India and MekongPerch in Long Melford, Suffolk, but I
catfish reaching anything like the sizesuspect my own Nile Perch will be a mite
of the Nile Perch. This fish is asmaller than his.
voracious predator, and when introducedInterested in this subject?
into Lake Victoria in the 1960`s it



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