Latidae

The Latidae, known as the lates perches, are a family of perch-like fishes found in Africa, Asia and the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. The family includes about 13 species. The family, previously classified subfamily Latinae in family Centropomidae, was raised to family status in 2004 after a cladistic analysis showed the original Centropomidae were paraphyletic.

Many species in this family are important food fishes, and some have been introduced outside their native ranges to provide fishing stocks. The freshwater Nile perch, a fierce predator, has become infamous, as its introduction into Lake Victoria in the 1960s has wrought devastation on the native fishes of the lake, causing the extinction of many endemic cichlids there.

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