A white perch superficially resembles a striped bass, but like the white bass, it is chunkier and has a slightly humpback appearance. Its two dorsal fins are not completely separated, but are deeply notched. Ventral fins each are armed with one stout spine. In New York, white perch are common on Long Island and in the lower Hudson River, including the lower Mohawk River. They are also present in Oneida Lake, Lake Ontario, the Seneca and Niagara rivers and in a few locations in north central New York.
White perch are prolific breeders.
In spring, schools crowd into tributary streams or along gravelly shoal areas in lakes where, without pairing off, females expel from 20,000 to 300,000 sticky eggs, which adhere to most anything, as males release sperm. The eggs are then abandoned. This seemingly haphazard reproduction strategy produces one of the highest hatching rates in fish. These fish are also long-lived. White perch school in large numbers, keeping to deep water during the day and moving inshore at night.