Lates niloticus Linnaeus, 1758

The abundance of the native tilapiine species may also have been reduced through competition with introduced species which have similar ecological requirements. At present, the Nile perch and one of the introduced tilapiine species, Oreochromis niloticus, form the basis of the fisheries of lakes Victoria and Kyoga. (Ogutu-Ohwayo 1990)

Nile perch predation and competition also caused declines in native species other than haplochromines, e.g. the lung fish (Protopterus aethiopicus), catfishes (e.g. Bagrus docmak, Xenoclarias eupogon, Synodontis victoria) (Ogutu-Ohwayo, 1990a,b; Goudswaard and Witte, 1997; Goudswaard et al., 2002a,b). (CABI, acesso em 08/07/2021)

Nile perch predation, competition with introduced species, habitat deterioration and fishery also caused declines in other native species than haplochromines, e.g. the lung fish (Protopterus aethiopicus), catfishes (e.g. Bagrus docmak, Xenoclarias eupogon, Synodontis victoria), and the indigenous tilapiines Oreochromis esculentus and O. variabilis (Ogutu-Ohwayo, 1990; Goudswaard & Witte, 1997; Goudswaard et al., 2002 a, b). By the end of the 1980s only three species were common in sublittoral and offshore waters of Lake Victoria; these were the small indigenous cyprinid Rastrineobola argentea, and the introduced Nile perch and Nile tilapia (Figs. 2 and 3; Ogutu-Ohwayo, 1990; Wanink, 1999; Goudswaard et al., 2002b). Together, they dominated the fish landings by more than 80% (Figs. 2 and 3; Reynolds et al., 1995). (Witte et al. 2009) As Nile perch increased in number, they did what they had been introduced to do: prey voraciously on the haplochromines. In fact, they did this so efficiently that entire species began to disappear before the eyes of frustrated ichthyologists; many species vanished before they could even be formally described (Goldschmidt 1996). (Pringle, 2005)