Description
A fish of medium and large rivers.
How to identify it
Snout with a fleshy nose, inferior mouth, scaleless keel between the pelvic fins and the vent.
Appearance
It has an elongated body, lower than the bream's but with an equally long anal fin. The back is dark blue-green, the flanks silvery, the eye yellow; the pectoral and pelvic fins have a reddish-yellow base. The scales are small. The mouth is small and opens below the snout, whereas the asp, which it resembles in outline, has a big mouth with a protruding lower jaw. In the breeding season the colours intensify and the males turn orange on the gill covers, fin bases and belly.
Habitat and habits
It lives in the middle and lower stretches of rivers, in brackish estuaries and in some large lakes; part of the population stays in the same river all year round. It moves in shoals of similar-sized fish close to the bottom, where it looks for larvae, small molluscs and other invertebrates. It prefers a medium to brisk current and hard beds of sand, clay or gravel, without mud. Between May and June it moves up into fast tributaries with a gravel bed and little vegetation to spawn.
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
