Description
A fish of cold, deep lakes.
How to identify it
Small mouth, rounded snout, silvery body, adipose fin.
Appearance
Tapered body, silvery on the flanks and white on the belly, with a blue-green or brownish back and dark grey fins; it has the adipose fin typical of salmonids, but the spots of the trout are completely absent. To separate it from other whitefish it is best to look at the mouth: in the lavaret the snout is short and the upper jaw protrudes slightly, while in the vendace (Coregonus albula) the lower jaw protrudes and in the peled the two jaws are equal. It rarely exceeds half a metre and two kilos.
Habitat and habits
It lives mainly in deep, cool, well-oxygenated lakes and reservoirs, where it moves in shoals through the water column following plankton and bottom invertebrates. The largest specimens sometimes rise towards the surface to take insects and chase the fry of other fish. It spawns in autumn, between September and November depending on temperature: some populations move up rivers to spawn, others stay in the lakes.
Related species and forms
Whitefish (lavaretus type)
Coregonus lavaretus (complesso)
This name denotes the complex of lake whitefish (in German Maräne, Renke, Reinanke, Felchen) that scholars regard either as a single highly variable species or as a group of close species.
Alpine lake whitefish
Coregonus atterensis e affini (Reinanke dei laghi alpini austriaci)
Group entry for the Reinanke (whitefish) of the Austrian Alpine lakes: Coregonus atterensis, described from Attersee and Mondsee, plus related forms of other lakes.
Traunsee whitefish
Coregonus danneri
Whitefish endemic to the Traunsee, in German Riedling, described by Vogt in 1908.
Whitefish (Traunsee and related forms)
Coregonus renke e affini (forme del Traunsee)
Lake whitefish known in Austria as Renke or Reinanke, historically described from the Bavarian lakes and from Traunsee and Hallstättersee.
Dwarf whitefish of the Attersee
Coregonus sp. (forma nana dell'Attersee, 'Kröpfling')
Kröpfling is the German name used in fishing texts for a small-sized whitefish form of the Attersee.
Wartmann's whitefish
Coregonus wartmanni
Whitefish of Lake Constance, where it occurs in open water.
Vendace
Coregonus albula
Small, slender-bodied whitefish that lives in large shoals in the lakes of northern Europe and in brackish waters of the Baltic.
Maraene
Coregonus maraena
Whitefish of the Baltic Sea basin, found at sea, in tributary rivers and, with resident populations, in some lakes.
Houting
Coregonus oxyrinchus
Anadromous whitefish of the North Sea, with a pointed snout and an inferior mouth.
Bodensee kilch
Coregonus gutturosus
Deepwater whitefish endemic to Lake Constance, now extinct.
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