Description
A fish of warm, still waters with a soft bottom and vegetation.
How to identify it
Very small scales and abundant mucus, rounded fins without hard rays, a small barbel at each corner of the mouth, red-orange eye.
Appearance
Stocky, massive body, with thick, very slimy skin in which the tiny scales are almost invisible. The colour is olive green, darker on the back and almost golden towards the belly; in clear water and over a sandy bottom it tends to be paler. All the fins are rounded and the tail is cut almost straight, with no fork. Males have larger, curved pelvic fins, with the first ray thickened. There is also a golden variety bred for ornamental ponds.
Habitat and habits
It prefers still or very slow waters with a mud or clay bottom and abundant vegetation: ponds, lakes, flooded pits, canals and oxbows of lowland rivers. It is rare over stony bottoms in clear water and absent altogether from fast watercourses. It copes with low-oxygen water, even where the common carp struggles. It feeds mostly at night, rooting in the mud for insect larvae, snails and small molluscs, and as it digs it sends lines of bubbles to the surface. It is more active in the summer heat.
There's more in the app
This species' bite index, recommended baits and methods, and the rules of the day for every water. Offline too.
Soon on Android and iPhone
