They are easily told apart from other true bass because white perch have no dark stripes and no patches of teeth on their tongues. Like striped bass, white perch can live in both fresh and saltwater. Although white perch prefer brackish waters, they also live in rivers, lakes and reservoirs. They often occur in large schools in turbid shallow areas. They are rapidly expanding their range in the state and can be found in the Hudson River and its tributaries south of Troy, small lakes east of the Hudson, fresh and brackish waters of Long Island, the Seneca River and Mohawk River systems, Oneida and Chautauqua Lakes, and in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
White perch are prolific breeders.
Schools of spawning white perch crowd into tributary streams or along gravelly shoal areas in lakes and large rivers to deposit their eggs. The tiny eggs sink to the bottom and attach to vegetation and rocks. Young perch eat plankton and insects while older perch feed mostly on fish. White perch are tasty fish with white, flaky flesh. At one time, they were an important commercial species in New York.