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Zander
The zander (Sander lucioperca), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Percidae (which also includes perch, ruffe and darter). It is found in freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. As a popular game fish, it has been introduced to a variety of localities outside its native range. It is the type species of the genus Sander.
The zander was first formally described in 1758 as Perca lucioperca by Carolus Linnaeus in volume 1 of the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, and he gave the type locality as "European lakes". When Lorenz Oken (1779–1851) created the genus Sander, he made Perca lucioperca its type species. The zander is part of the European clade within the genus Sander, which split from a common ancestor with the North American clade, which the walleye (S. vitreus) and the sauger (S. canadensis) belong to, around 20.8 million years ago. Within the European clade the Volga pikeperch (S. volgaensis) is the most basal taxon and shares features with the North American clade, such as being a broadcast spawner. In contrast in the zander and the estuarine perch (S. marinus), the males build nests, the females spawn into these nests, and the males then guard the eggs and fry. The lineage leading to the zander is thought to have diverged from the common ancestor with the Volga pikeperch circa 13.8 million years ago, while the split from the estuarine perch took place around 9.1 million years ago.
Fossil remains of S. lucioperca are known from the Late Miocene and Pliocene of Ukraine. They appear to have coexisted with the extinct pikeperches Sander svetovidovi and Leobergia.
The zander is the largest member of the Percidae. It usually has a long and muscular body which bears some resemblance to a Northern pike (Esox lucius), hence the alternative English common name of pikeperch.
The upper part of its body is green-brown in colour, and this extends onto the sides as dark vertical bars, in a pattern not dissimilar to that of the European perch (Perca fluviatilis), while the lower part of the body is creamy-white. The caudal fin is dark, and the pectoral, pelvic and anal fins are paler off-white. The dorsal and caudal fins are marked with rows of black spots on the membranes between the spines and rays; these are largest and most obvious on the first dorsal fin. The juveniles are silvery in colour, becoming darker as they age. They have powerful jaws armed with many sharp teeth, with two long canines in the front of each jaw. They have large, bulbous eyes which are opaque when the fish is living in particularly turbid conditions, an adaptation to low light. There is a single flat spine on the operculum. Like other members of the perch family, the zander has a split dorsal fin, with the first dorsal fin having 13–20 spines and 18–24 soft rays, while the anal fin has 2–3 rays and 10–14 soft rays. The caudal fin is long and forked.
The zander has a maximum published standard length of 100 centimetres (39 in), although they are more commonly found at around 50 centimetres (20 in). This species can weigh up to 15 kg (33 lb), although typical catches are considerably smaller. The IGFA All-Tackle world record zander was caught in Lago Maggiore, Switzerland in June 2016, weighing 11.48 kg (25.3 lb). Zander reach an average length of 40–80 cm (15.5–31.5 in) with a maximum length of 120 cm (47 in).
The zander is very widely distributed across Eurasia, occurring in the drainages of the Caspian, Baltic, Black, Aral, North and Aegean Sea basins. The northern boundary of its distribution is in Finland. It has been introduced to Great Britain, southern Europe, and continental Europe west of the Elbe, Ebro, Tagus and Jucar drainages, as well as to Anatolia, North Africa, Siberia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
In the UK, zander was originally introduced in 1878 by Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford, into lakes on his Woburn Abbey estate and soon after that into the Great Ouse Relief Channel in The Fens. British Waterways included zander among a "dirty dozen" non-native species most likely to harm native wildlife along rivers in Great Britain.
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Zander
The zander (Sander lucioperca), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Percidae (which also includes perch, ruffe and darter). It is found in freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. As a popular game fish, it has been introduced to a variety of localities outside its native range. It is the type species of the genus Sander.
The zander was first formally described in 1758 as Perca lucioperca by Carolus Linnaeus in volume 1 of the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, and he gave the type locality as "European lakes". When Lorenz Oken (1779–1851) created the genus Sander, he made Perca lucioperca its type species. The zander is part of the European clade within the genus Sander, which split from a common ancestor with the North American clade, which the walleye (S. vitreus) and the sauger (S. canadensis) belong to, around 20.8 million years ago. Within the European clade the Volga pikeperch (S. volgaensis) is the most basal taxon and shares features with the North American clade, such as being a broadcast spawner. In contrast in the zander and the estuarine perch (S. marinus), the males build nests, the females spawn into these nests, and the males then guard the eggs and fry. The lineage leading to the zander is thought to have diverged from the common ancestor with the Volga pikeperch circa 13.8 million years ago, while the split from the estuarine perch took place around 9.1 million years ago.
Fossil remains of S. lucioperca are known from the Late Miocene and Pliocene of Ukraine. They appear to have coexisted with the extinct pikeperches Sander svetovidovi and Leobergia.
The zander is the largest member of the Percidae. It usually has a long and muscular body which bears some resemblance to a Northern pike (Esox lucius), hence the alternative English common name of pikeperch.
The upper part of its body is green-brown in colour, and this extends onto the sides as dark vertical bars, in a pattern not dissimilar to that of the European perch (Perca fluviatilis), while the lower part of the body is creamy-white. The caudal fin is dark, and the pectoral, pelvic and anal fins are paler off-white. The dorsal and caudal fins are marked with rows of black spots on the membranes between the spines and rays; these are largest and most obvious on the first dorsal fin. The juveniles are silvery in colour, becoming darker as they age. They have powerful jaws armed with many sharp teeth, with two long canines in the front of each jaw. They have large, bulbous eyes which are opaque when the fish is living in particularly turbid conditions, an adaptation to low light. There is a single flat spine on the operculum. Like other members of the perch family, the zander has a split dorsal fin, with the first dorsal fin having 13–20 spines and 18–24 soft rays, while the anal fin has 2–3 rays and 10–14 soft rays. The caudal fin is long and forked.
The zander has a maximum published standard length of 100 centimetres (39 in), although they are more commonly found at around 50 centimetres (20 in). This species can weigh up to 15 kg (33 lb), although typical catches are considerably smaller. The IGFA All-Tackle world record zander was caught in Lago Maggiore, Switzerland in June 2016, weighing 11.48 kg (25.3 lb). Zander reach an average length of 40–80 cm (15.5–31.5 in) with a maximum length of 120 cm (47 in).
The zander is very widely distributed across Eurasia, occurring in the drainages of the Caspian, Baltic, Black, Aral, North and Aegean Sea basins. The northern boundary of its distribution is in Finland. It has been introduced to Great Britain, southern Europe, and continental Europe west of the Elbe, Ebro, Tagus and Jucar drainages, as well as to Anatolia, North Africa, Siberia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
In the UK, zander was originally introduced in 1878 by Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford, into lakes on his Woburn Abbey estate and soon after that into the Great Ouse Relief Channel in The Fens. British Waterways included zander among a "dirty dozen" non-native species most likely to harm native wildlife along rivers in Great Britain.