Japanese Perch
Amazing fact
Male Japanese perch clean underwater plant stems and leaves to prepare a place for eggs.
大阪府立環境農林水産総合研究所
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Male Japanese perch clean underwater plant stems and leaves to prepare a place for eggs.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Japanese Perch
- Scientific name
- Coreoperca kawamebari
- Japanese name
- オヤニラミ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Centrarchiformes
- Family
- Percichthyidae
- Genus
- Coreoperca
Where the name “Japanese Perch” comes from
The scientific name kawamebari refers to its resemblance to the marine rockfish mebaru.
大阪府立環境農林水産総合研究所A small fish of the perch group that lives in the middle and lower reaches of clean rivers.
Its Japanese name comes from the black mark on its gill cover, which looks as if it is glaring at its parent.
How the Japanese Perch lives
Young fish live in groups without holding territories. Adults hold territories on slow-flowing riverbanks and eat aquatic insects and small fish. The female attaches her eggs to a spawning site guarded by the male. The male guards the eggs until they hatch.
島根県水産技術センター大阪府立環境農林水産総合研究所Basic data
- Range
- Japan (Honshu west of the Katsura and Yura river systems, northeastern Shikoku, northern Kyushu) and southern Korean Peninsula
- Conservation status in Japan
- Endangered (EN)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020
Where the Japanese Perch has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オヤニラミ
- 简体中文
- 川目少鳞鳜
- 繁體中文
- 川目少鱗鱖
- 한국어
- 꺽저기
- Português (Brasil)
- Perca-peregrina-japonesa
- Русский
- Жёлтая кореоперка
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — オヤニラミChecked: 2026-11-04
- 大阪府立環境農林水産総合研究所 — オヤニラミChecked: 2026-11-07
- 島根県水産技術センター — オヤニラミChecked: 2026-11-07
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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