Omena, the tiny sardine-like fish of Lake Victoria, became an economic lifeline when Nile perch invaded the lake in the 1980s. The perch decimated traditional fish stocks, transforming the lake's ecology and the livelihoods dependent on it. Omena survived, small enough to escape predation, and became a protein source for millions. The shift from tilapia to omena was not just ecological but economic and cultural. The lake that defined Luo identity had been fundamentally altered, and the people adapted, as they always have, to what the water provided.