Just as a forest should be filled with animals, so a pond should be filled with fish. A hectare of land cannot look like a full-fledged piece of paradise without fish in the pond.

For stocking ponds, it is best to get fish in the middle or end of March and no later than the beginning of April; the later time, due to warmer weather, is not suitable for transportation.

It is best to buy stocked fish from nearby farms or a nursery, from which, if it is very close, the fish can be transferred in a large bucket or tub.

When transporting or carrying stocked fish, the water must be refreshed from time to time by adding it with a thin stream falling from a certain height, or by immersing it in a vessel in which the fish are located, often a woven basket or strainer, and quickly removing it again.

The water, flowing down in small streams, is saturated with air and again becomes suitable for breathing by fish. For the same purpose, it is useful to take with you an ordinary garden watering can.

This procedure for refreshing the water should be resumed every time it is noticed that the fish are rising to the surface and greedily swallowing air, and repeat several times in a row.

The question often arises as to how many fish can be kept in a garden pond.

There is a rule: at least 50 liters of water for a finger-length fish . But this is only a control figure. We must not forget that fast-growing fish outgrow this size.

Freshly purchased fish should not be put into the pond immediately. The vessel or plastic bag in which they were brought should be allowed to float in the water of the pond in order to even out possible temperature differences that could put the fish in a state of shock.

What and when should you feed your fish? Of course, not potatoes, bread or table scraps. In this case, the pond will soon turn into a real garbage dump.

Usually, the fish themselves find enough food in the water: algae, duckweed, mosquito larvae and everything that lives on the bottom and in the soil. Also, some fish feed on other, smaller ones, and on caviar. The newly constructed pond is poor in food...

What kind of fish should I breed? The answer to this question depends on what region you live in, what the temperature is in the pond, what kind of bottom the pond has: soft-silt or hard-rocky.

The most famous representatives of reservoirs living in stagnant water are listed below.

Carp

In terms of its importance, carp undoubtedly ranks first among other pond fish. The word carp comes from the Greek "fruit", which probably indicates the fertility of this fish. River carp are also called carp.

Pond carp b. part of German origin and differs from the river one in the darker and greenish color of the scales, width, less blunt muzzle, with an even sharper break towards the back, and most importantly - extraordinary endurance.

Carp reaches enormous sizes and great old age, like no other carp fish. Males differ from females of the same age in being almost half as tall and agile, i.e., having a thinner and elongated body. In addition, there are always 2-3 times more males than females.

Carps are indigenous inhabitants of countries with high summer and relatively low winter temperatures, which is associated with their deep winter sleep, as well as the need for normal development of eggs.

Carp spawns very late, lying down for the winter in the fall and stopping feeding until the waters finally open. Unlike tench and crucian carp, carp spend the winter in pits, and if they bury themselves in silt, it is very rare.

Carp is voracious. He is called the pig between the fishes. The main food in spring and summer are young shoots of reeds ( Tupha) and some other aquatic plants, as well as fish and frog caviar.

Later, carp feed on mucus and slugs, dragonflies and their larvae. Like all other fish, carp does not disdain its own and other people’s young. In the hungriest times of the year, he also catches large fish.

Carp loves shade. The bottom of the pond should be soft, silty, and the water should be warm. A small number of tench can be bred together with carp.

Tench

The tench gets its name from its characteristic feature of changing its color when taken out of the water: the caught tench immediately becomes covered with large black spots. This is due to mucus that hardens when exposed to air.

Tench resembles ide, but is easily distinguished from all cyprinids by its thick, clumsy body, very thick tail part of the body, very small scales and very small bright red eyes.

In addition, the tench has an unpaired number of pharyngeal teeth. The mouth is small, fleshy, as if swollen, and one very small antennae sits at the corners.

The back is dark green, the sides are olive green with a golden sheen, the belly is grayish; in shady ponds, tench are almost black.

Tench grows slowly, but lives a long time, reaching a length of 50 cm. It is a sluggish and lazy fish. It moves slowly and lives more often in the same place in the pond.

For most of the day, tench, like crucian carp, digs into the viscous mud, extracting from there the main food - worms; but it also feeds on the mud itself and various aquatic plants.

Only in the morning, evening and at night does the tench go out for a walk in cleaner areas of the pond, but even then it rarely appears on the surface.

In October-November, tench lie down for the winter in the deepest places, sometimes completely burying themselves in the mud.

It comes out from there very early - in March-April - and, exhausted, begins to peck greedily until May, after which it hides in the mud, from where it emerges 2-3 days before the start of the game (spawning) to the most grassy banks.

He especially loves peas ( Pota-mogeton), which is called line grass. Tench loves quiet, grassy water, which is why it prefers to stay in ponds and lakes overgrown with reeds and reeds.

In small stagnant ponds, tench are very rare, because they need fairly clean water.

Perch

Perch, together with roach, is one of the most numerous inhabitants of our freshwater waters.

Even in stagnant ponds with fairly fresh water, perch is found in abundance, and some lakes are inhabited only by this fish. It is more often found in central and southern Russia and central Siberia.

In its structure and body color, perch is easily distinguished from all our other fish.

Its body is quite wide, especially in large perches, and somewhat hunchbacked; the back is dark green, the sides are greenish-yellow, the belly is yellowish; 5-9 transverse dark stripes stretch across the entire body; in some cases, these stripes are replaced by dark, irregular spots.

The caudal fin is anal and the ventral fins are bright red; the pectoral fins are yellow, the first dorsal fin is gray, with a large black spot at the end, the second is greenish-yellow.

The eyes are orange. However, the color of the perch depends on the quality of the water, and even more on the color of the soil. Therefore, perches in clear water with a light sandy or clay bottom are very light.

On the contrary, in forest lakes with a black muddy bottom they have darker stripes, a darker back and a bright yellow belly.

On the gill covers there is one sharp spine, which pricks very painfully and can even cause swelling and mild inflammation.

The mouth is very large, armed with numerous, but very small teeth. Perch is almost never more than 54 cm long, but its thickness at the back sometimes extends up to 18 cm, and its height up to 27 cm.

Depending on the size, as well as the time of year, the perch lives in more or less deep places.

In summer - small and medium-sized ones choose as their habitat creeks, chickens, overgrown with aquatic plants (burdocks, peas - Potamogeton, reeds and reeds), which also serve as an ambush for them when catching small fish, and generally stay at great depths, but in the fall they come out to more open places.

Large perches constantly live at depth - in pools, holes - and come out only in the mornings and evenings. In general, perch is a sedentary fish, never travels long distances, even before spawning, and often, as in ponds and lakes, lives all year round in the same place.

Large perch is a very voracious, strong and predatory fish. The main food is small fish and caviar; large perch love crayfish. In Trans-Ural lakes, mormysh is a tasty food for perch.

This fish eats insects only when there is a lack of other food. Almost everywhere in rivers, perch mainly feeds on last year’s roach and fry of this most common fish.

In ponds and lakes of central Russia, small and medium-sized perch prefer adult redfish to small roach.

In more northern lakes, the place of verkhovka is replaced by smelt; large perches living at great depths feed here on young whitefish and one-year-old whitefish.

It goes without saying that he does not spare his own offspring everywhere, and a large perch will also never miss an opportunity to grab a 9-13-centimeter fellow.

This self-criticism has its good sides, since it limits the reproduction of this prolific fish and preserves many young fish of other species.

In ponds and lakes abounding in low-value fish, such as verkhovka, char and roach, or difficult to catch in large quantities, such as tench and crucian carp, in the absence of pike, the reproduction of perch is very desirable and it is often a direct calculation to put perch into the pond, which could stop excessive reproduction and therefore grinding of non-predatory fish.

In ponds where there are a lot of harmful fish such as loach, which often destroys almost all the eggs of other fish, or although less harmful, but already completely useless, like verkhovka, breeding perch is positively necessary, since it, in this case, contributes to the rapid growth and reproduction of tench and crucian carp.

You just need to keep in mind that where only one crucian carp can live, that is, in stagnant shallow ponds freezing almost to the bottom, the perch cannot live; but where there is tench, rudd, verkhovka, especially roach, which is much more demanding in terms of water quality, that is, in deeper ponds that have springs, and although temporarily (in the spring and after heavy rains) flowing - perch can be bred for sure .

Gudgeon

This fish is easily recognized by its large scales, cylindrical body and two small antennae that lie at the corners of the mouth. For the most part, gudgeon is no more than 13 cm.

Its cobblestone body, devoid of mucus, is greenish-brown on top and covered with bluish or blackish spots, which, sometimes on the sides, merge and form a dark stripe; belly - yellowish, silvery; dorsal and caudal fins - mottled with dark brown spots, which are usually located in several regular rows; all fins are greyish; eyes are yellow.

The gudgeon's pharyngeal teeth are arranged in two rows, and their rim is curved at the top with a hook.

The gudgeon lives both in large rivers and in the smallest rivers, it is less common in flowing lakes and ponds, and even more so in winter, but, being transplanted into stagnant but clean water, or getting there by accident, it multiplies there very quickly, although it never reaches the same magnitude as in rivers.

In general, he likes clean and fresh water, although he avoids very cold and too fast.

Usually, throughout the spring and summer, minnows stay on or near rifts, in shallow places with a gristly or sandy bottom.

They are never found in grassy areas during the day, and in general minnows are found in the community of minnows and loaches.

In October or November, depending on the area, gudgeons almost disappear and go to ponds or lakes for the winter.

The gudgeon leads a completely diurnal lifestyle and never swims at night, but then lies motionless on the bottom, resting its pectoral, ventral and anal fins, as if on supports.

In the midday heat, he sometimes, also for whole hours, stands in one place, leaning against a stone or snag, and this immobility of the gudgeon, together with his slab-like body, gave rise to the apt name of it by the Ukrainians - column, stoluchik.

The lake gudgeon stands in the depths at night and is unlikely to hide in the grass, like the river gudgeon.

Like a bottom fish, the gudgeon always looks for food at the bottom. It usually feeds on small worms, insects, crustaceans, such as cyclops and daphnia, as well as particles of rotten organic matter, which it obtains from sand or silt.

In this case, the antennae probably do the gudgeon a great service. In the mud, he gets himself bloodworms, which, at the end of summer, seem to be almost the main food of this fish, of course, where there are a lot of bloodworms. The main food of the gudgeon in the spring is the caviar of other fish.

Ruff

Ruff is a typical representative of the ichthyofauna of Russia - it lives in reservoirs almost throughout the country. It is found both in large rivers and in small rivers, on the seashore, in lakes and flowing or spring ponds.

It is very unpretentious and is an almost constant companion of perch, like which it does not like strong currents and prefers rivers or bays, or holes with whirlpools.

In its structure, the ruff resembles a perch, but the front is spiny - its dorsal fin is inextricably linked with the rear, thick spines are also contained in the anal fin; the gill covers (cheeks) are also lined with 11-12 sharp spines.

His eyes are very large - bulging, with a dull purple, sometimes even bluish iris.

The back is gray-green with blackish spots and dots, the sides are somewhat yellowish, the belly is whitish, however, its color depends on the location: in rivers and lakes with a sandy bottom, the ruff is always lighter than in silty areas.

Here it is sometimes almost dark green in color. In ponds ruff b. h. has a yellowish, even yellowish-gray abdomen. Typically, it is about 13 cm long.

Small crustaceans, small insects, and the larvae of the latter constitute the main food of the ruff; in the spring it also eats large quantities of eggs of other fish and therefore, in small lakes, it soon exterminates other fish.

There is no doubt that they also eat not only recently hatched young fish, but they are not averse to profiting from small things. In general, the ruff is a social, peace-loving fish, and even large ruffs get along with small ones.

In flowing ponds, the ruffe, like a nocturnal or, rather, twilight fish, lives in holes near the shady banks, but most of all it loves to stay near dams, piles, baths and bridges, where it finds shade, coolness and food.

In hot weather, when the water in the pond reaches a temperature of 20 and above, the ruffe, depending on the area, either goes to the springs and the mouths of spring streams, or hides under floating banks or bogs, if any.

In shallow lakes, the ruffe hides all summer under these so-called lavdas (floats), or lavas. The mormysh lives under the lavdas all summer, serving as its main food and also cannot tolerate warm water.

All summer the ruffe leads a fairly sedentary life. Only strong heating of water in ponds and floods in large and medium-sized rivers force it to migrate to another place.

Remember that the ruff lives in ponds where there are underground springs; always avoids sunlight and warm water, and therefore, in summer it is rarely found at a depth of less than 2 m, especially large ones.

Bream

The bream is easily distinguished from other fish related to it by its extremely high, as if flattened, body, accounting for about 1/3 of the entire length, blackish fins and 29 rays in the long anal fin, which, undoubtedly, like in flounders, plays, As it were, the role of the keel gives the bream greater lateral stability.

His head is small, his mouth is very small.

Small breams, usually called breams, are always much narrower and longer than older individuals, have relatively large eyes and bear some resemblance to the silver bream, from which they differ in their dark swimming feathers.

Body color also changes with age: young bream are grayish-white with a silvery tint, then they gradually darken and acquire a brownish or blackish color with a golden-yellow tint, which increases with age.

Bream reach a very significant size. They usually have from 30 to 45 cm in length and weigh up to 4-5 kg.

Bream is found in almost all rivers, with the exception of small rocky and fast rivers, and in many large and flood lakes.

He also avoids cold water. In general, it loves quiet, warm water with a sandy-silty (but not muddy) or clay bottom and therefore most often lives in river bays and flowing lakes.

In lakes and especially in ponds b. feeds. h. near reeds and reeds, he also loves buckwheat very much ( Polygonum).

Most often, bream are observed during the so-called fall of a broom, which is its most delicious food.

They mainly feed on aquatic plants, especially white rush roots, algae, as well as worms and various larvae and insects, along with which they often swallow the very silt in which they are found.

In the spring, before spawning, bream destroy a lot of eggs of other fish, especially in ponds and lakes - pike and perch. In addition, they are very fond of molting crayfish, which they sometimes pull out of their holes.

carp

Crucian carp is easily distinguished from all our other freshwater fish by its more or less round body, strongly flattened on the sides, although it is still much thicker than bream.

The word “crucian carp,” as you know, is sometimes given a common meaning - and a fat, clumsy person will be called by this nickname.

With its tall, compressed body and lack of mustache, the crucian carp is easily distinguished from its closest relative, the carp, as well as by the number and position of its pharyngeal teeth, of which it has 4 on each side and in one row. The crucian has a length of 20-30 cm.

However, crucian carp have many varieties, very different not only in color and size, but also in the form itself.

But all these varieties can be attributed to two species or, perhaps, breeds - round, or ordinary golden crucian carp, and oblong, or silver.

The main differences between round and oblong crucian carp are visible from their very names.

The first is much wider (its height is 2.5 times the length of the entire body), its back rises from the back of the head in a steep arc; Usually it is more or less dark golden, sometimes reddish-golden in color.

The oblong crucian carp has a more elongated body, its back forms a much less convex arc, so that its height is about 1/3 of the entire body length; the scales on it are silver, but sometimes take on a blackish tint; the tail is more cut.

The habitat of both these and other crucian carp is almost the same: both round and silver crucian carp live exclusively in stagnant waters, also in quiet bays and oxbow lakes of rivers, but the latter is more often found in running water, especially in rivers, which is why it is sometimes called lake , or river, crucian carp.

Of all our fish, crucian carp is undoubtedly the most unpretentious and undemanding.

Crucian carp lives in more or less significant numbers not only in all lakes and ponds; but it is often found in semi-underground lakes, almost completely covered in quagmire, and in small pits, where the life of any other fish is completely unthinkable.

One can even say positively that the worse the water properties of the basin they inhabit, the more silty the pond or lake, the more numerous the crucian carp are and the faster they develop.

Tina is their element. Here they get food, consisting exclusively of organic remains and particles, as well as small worms, and for the winter they completely bury themselves in this silt and remain alive even when, in severe snowless winters, shallow standing waters freeze to the very bottom.

Golden crucian carp are generally much hardier than silver crucian carp. Hence it is clear why, nowadays, you rarely find even the smallest pond or lake in which there would be no bred or accidentally caught crucian carp.

In general, crucian carp can be found in any water, and if sometimes it is rare in rivers and several lakes, then this, of course, most of all depends on the fact that, at the first opportunity, it tries to go into calmer and muddier waters.

His thick, clumsy body cannot cope with a rather slow current, and with a sandy or rocky bottom, he has nowhere to get food for himself and nowhere to hide from predatory fish, which, of course, take advantage of his slowness and, soon, completely exterminate him, as him, and his eggs and young.

Proof that crucian carp is not at all afraid of cold water can be found in the fact that it is often found, especially in the Ural waters, in spring pits.

Young crucian carp in huge numbers are destroyed by many aquatic insects, especially swimming beetles and water scorpions.

In general, crucian carp, due to the exclusivity of their habitat, suffers a lot from insects and other “reptiles” that reproduce unhindered in stagnant waters, especially silty ones and overgrown with grass.

Its eggs and newly hatched juveniles are destroyed in large numbers by green frogs, even newts, which, like the first ones, very often live with crucian carp.

The most destroyers of crucian caviar and fry are, undoubtedly, swimming beetles - large water beetles. Swimming fish often eat or spoil already quite large crucian carp, and even chase completely adult ones.

Looking at the thick, clumsy body of crucian carp, whose stomach is chock-full of green mud at almost every time of the year, one will understand its lethargy and clumsiness, which is partly due to plant food: crucian carp does not need speed of movement, since its food, as they say, is nose.

Only in the evenings and nights, on a clear hot day, sometimes at noon, do crucian carp come out from here to the shores and feast on the young stems of aquatic plants, especially reed shoots.

At this time, one can often hear its slurping and smacking sounds, by which it is not difficult to distinguish crucian carp from other fish.

In the winter, in November and December, due to lack of air, part of the food, crucian carp climb into deep muddy holes, and in shallow freezing lakes they even bury themselves in the mud and withstand adversity, burying themselves deeper and deeper into it.

Crucian carp is such a hardy fish and such a common fish that it is not worth even talking about breeding it. It is only absent in recently dug ponds or where it cannot withstand the struggle for existence with other species.

Only crucian carp can live in small and shallow stagnant ponds, since tench, and even more so carp, sooner or later suffocate in them in winter. However, ice holes are also necessary for crucian carp.

Bleak

Watching a school of these silver fish can be a lot of fun, especially when they jump out of the water to chase passing mosquitoes.

This small graceful fish willingly stays near the surface of the water, hunting for insects. Being only 10-15 cm long, it quickly gets used to the presence of humans.

The bleak is very beautiful, especially when it turns in the sun and sparkles with its silvery scales.

Her back is grayish-bluish with a green tint; the sides and belly are silvery-white with a strong shine; the upper and lower fins are gray, only in the middle, at the base, they are yellowish; eyes are silver.

The scales have a silvery metallic color, are distinguished by their tenderness and sit so loosely on the body that they fly off at the slightest touch or stick to the hands.

This fish, however, represents many modifications that differ from each other.

Bleak is often found in very large quantities in flowing and flood lakes, in flowing ponds with clean and light water and a sandy bottom.

Usually it chooses quiet and fairly deep water, and stays at a depth of no more than 70 cm.

In ponds and rivers with banks overgrown with trees, bleaks readily swim under overhanging branches, but are almost never found in grasses, except for young fingerlings and yearlings, which are often found in the verkhovka community.

The last observation, however, applies to pond bleak. In late autumn, after severe frosts, bleak takes refuge in deep holes with a sandy bottom.

In general, this is an extremely lively and agile fish. The bleak is in constant motion and does not seem to remain at rest for a single minute.

She is very voracious and therefore constantly, from morning to evening, even at night, is busy getting food and rushes after any grain that falls or floats by.

Its main food consists of insects, especially flies and hymenoptera.

After sunset, when clouds of mosquitoes and midges crowd just above the water, you can often see how bleaks, floating in flocks near the surface, jump out of the water one after another: probably this maneuver indirectly aims to catch these insects: splashed mosquitoes or midges fall into water and become fish prey.

For this reason, bleak jumps out and melts most in the mornings, evenings, before a thunderstorm or rain, when insects fly closer to the surface of the water due to dampness.

In addition, bleak often feeds on the youngest fish of other species, especially roach, and also on caviar.

Bleak does not spare delicate aquatic plants, so it is kept only in heavily overgrown ponds.

Minnow

The fish has many names: naked, goly, golyachka, golek, motley, motley, motley- by variegated color.

There are two forms: river and lake. The river minnow is lighter than the lake minnow.

Its back is brownish-green, sometimes bluish, with a more or less clear black stripe along the middle; the sides are greenish-yellow, with a golden sheen, and closer to the belly - with a silvery sheen; the belly itself, from the lips to the caudal fin, is reddish or even bright red, but sometimes it is also white.

The fins are yellowish with a blackish edge; paired fins and anus - have a red base; eyes are yellowish-silver.

However, it is very difficult to completely correctly describe the colors of this fish, especially since they change with the seasons and the area.

It should be noted that in the common minnow the lateral line continues only to the middle of the body, and then it is interrupted and even disappears completely.

The lake minnow can live in heavily vegetated brown water swamps where there is very little oxygen.

For the first time this minnow (or rather, a species very close to it) was found by Pallas in Eastern Siberia, where it is known under the name munda, mundugika and is described under the title mouthpiece.

This fish is much larger than an ordinary minnow and, in some exceptional cases, reaches a size of 15 cm and up to 100 g of weight.

Its scales are comparatively larger than those of a minnow, its body shape is less square: it is noticeably compressed from the sides and its nose is not so convex and, in addition, it never has such variegated flowers.

The back of the lake minnow is dark bluish-green, the sides are golden, the swimming feathers are orange, even almost red, the eyes are pale yellow, and the redness on its belly is not noticeable even during spawning, which begins later than in other fish. - or other fish, namely, at the beginning, even in mid-July.

Despite the fact that lake minnows often live in stagnant, shallow and, moreover, silty lakes, always together with crucian carp or tench, they are not very lively and soon fall asleep after being taken out of the water.

Their food consists exclusively of plant matter, and their stomach is constantly full of green dirt.

For the winter, they, no doubt, like crucian carp, burrow into the “nyasha”. The fish reaches a length of 7-10 cm and lives 3-4 years.

Verkhovka

Of all our fish, the verkhovka has the smallest size. Therefore, its distribution in Russia is still little known, especially since it is often mixed with young bleak, with which it actually bears a great resemblance.

With all that, it is not difficult to distinguish it from the latter, not to mention the fact that it is incomparably smaller than bleak and, in rare cases, reaches a size of more than 7.5 cm (from the eye to the beginning of the tail).

The Verkhovka has a relatively wider body, a wider back and an incomparably thicker head.

The food of verkhovkas consists of insects and all sorts of small particles falling into the water; they grab absolutely everything that comes their way; as soon as you throw something into the water, they rush headlong towards the noise and splash, surrounding the fallen object - be it even a sliver.

Verkhovkas quickly tear pieces of bread into small pieces, chase each other, take away crumbs, and catch those that are sinking to the bottom.

In general, they are in constant motion, are distinguished by their gluttony, extreme curiosity and are the least embarrassed by the presence of humans among other fish.

Apparently, they are very harmful to ponds, since they themselves bring almost no benefit, and meanwhile, they destroy the eggs of crucian carp in large quantities.

In late autumn, shortly before freezing, the verkhovka disappears; it probably winters in reeds and reeds. However, in winter it is caught in large quantities for aquariums from ice holes in small ponds and even in brick pits.

Verkhovka loves a pond with dense thickets and stones. Its food consists mainly of mosquitoes, larvae, tiny crustaceans, algae and other small aquatic organisms.

Rudd

At first glance, the rudd bears a close resemblance to the roach and is probably often mistaken for the latter.

But, not to mention the fact that the rudd is much more beautiful than the carapace, has completely different pharyngeal teeth, it can easily be distinguished by its slanting mouth directed upward, by the sharp protruding rib on the belly, by the yellow border on the lips, and by smaller and golden scales , and also by the fact that its dorsal fin does not begin above the ventral fin, like a roach’s, but behind it.

In addition, the rudd is not covered with mucus, like the roach.

The main habitat of the rudd is bays and oxbow lakes, as well as flowing ponds and lakes, where reeds, reeds and other aquatic plants grow in abundance.

Here it is quite often found in a community with crucian carp, tench and bream and leads an almost sedentary life, rarely moving away from the place it has once chosen.

The rudd is a rather sluggish and lazy fish, in its lifestyle it occupies, as it were, a middle ground between roach and crucian carp.

It constantly stays at medium depths in the grass, even more so in reeds, especially at a young age, does not like strong currents and is not even found in fast rivers.

Its food, as one would expect, consists mainly of plant substances, partly insects, larvae and worms.

By September, when the grasses begin to disappear, young rudd move into the reeds and, probably, spend the winter there.

At this time, adult fish stay in deeper places, appear less and less often at the surface, and finally, in October, they lie down for the winter, as if disappearing.

In ponds and lakes, when the water dies in winter, the rudd floats to the surface. This is a very hardy fish, almost as unpretentious to water quality as tench, and much stronger and more tenacious than roach.

Loach

In its appearance, the loach somewhat resembles an eel or a snake; its very name shows its ability to wriggle, like the latter.

The body of the loach is very long, almost cylindrical in front; the slightly downward-facing mouth is surrounded by ten antennae, of which 6 of the largest are on the upper lip, and four are on the lower lip; all its fins are more or less rounded, the abdominal ones lie far behind the pectoral ones and are of insignificant size; the scales are very small and, since they are always covered with a thick layer of mucus, they are completely invisible.

The loach's back is yellowish-brown with black specks, its belly is yellow, sometimes even reddish, and on the sides of the body there are three longitudinal black stripes, the middle of which is much wider than the outer ones; all fins are brown with blackish specks; eyes are yellow, very small.

Loaches moved to running or clean water receive brighter colors. Occasionally there are white degenerates - albino loaches.

The usual size of a loach is about 20-23 cm, but sometimes it reaches more than 30 cm in length and is as thick as a thumb.

The loach loves quiet water and a muddy bottom, and therefore its main habitat is swampy, slowly flowing rivers, quiet backwaters of large rivers, blind channels, silty ponds and lakes, often ditches and swamps, where the existence of any other fish is already unthinkable, not excluding and crucian carp.

The loach is more tenacious than the latter and can live for a very long time in the wet mud that remains at the bottom of dry lakes, pits and swamps.

In general, it constantly stays at the bottom of the water, often completely buries itself in the mud and here it looks for food, which usually consists of worms, insect larvae, small bivalves, as well as the silt itself.

It comes to the surface only before the onset of bad weather or a thunderstorm, and due to this ability to predict the weather, sometimes a day in advance it is often kept in a room in a jar of water. For a fisherman, this is the best, most reliable and cheapest barometer.

Another remarkable ability of the loach, which led to its name squeak, is that, when picked up, it emits a faint squeak.

This, obviously, comes from the ability to draw air into the food intake channel, which is confirmed by loaches that are kept in a jar with not entirely fresh water: then from time to time they come to the surface, stick their heads out of the water, swallow air and immediately release it with a noise through the back hole.

Roach

In its appearance, the roach comes closest to the rudd, which is often mistaken for the first, but the rudd differs from the roach in the golden tint of its scales, yellow lips, the number and shape of the pharyngeal teeth, a bluntly rounded nose and a rounded belly with a prominent rib.

The color of the roach's back is blackish with a blue or greenish tint, the sides of the body and belly are silver-white, the dorsal and caudal fins are greenish-gray with a reddish tint, the pectoral fins are pale yellowish, the ventral and anal fins are red, the iris is yellow with red spot at the top.

This is the color of our common river roach.

Typically, roaches are small in size and, for the most part, do not reach more than 30 cm in length and 600 g in weight.

But, under favorable conditions, i.e., with abundant food and sufficient space in the habitat, the despised carp is not inferior in growth to many other carp fish.

In lakes, small one-year-old roach stays near the shores, in the grass, where it finds refuge from its main enemy - perch, but adults prefer deeper and more open places.

Here in the summer it feeds mainly on plant food, namely algae, most often green spherical algae, which causes the so-called water bloom, from which many rivers are not free.

In addition, of course, various small animal organisms serve as food for roaches - up to small shells ( Lymnaeus and etc.).

Roach is an extremely unpretentious fish: it gets along equally well both in small rivers, almost streams, ponds and lakes (as long as the water in them is fresh and deep enough) and in large rivers.

It is impossible not to notice that in the north it is, nevertheless, much less numerous than in the south, and in rivers with cold spring water and in the mountains it is very rare or even not found at all.

In general, roach avoids cold and very fast water and prefers quiet and warm water, although it does not particularly like very muddy and silty places, which is why it is much more numerous in lakes with a sandy bottom than in silty ones, where crucian carp already predominate.

Shchipovka

Titles pinch, nipper given to this fish for its movable under-eye spines, with which it clings to the nets and with which you can prick your fingers if you carelessly take it by the head.

By these spines and flattened body, the spined loach is easy to distinguish from other loaches.

It is smaller in size than a loach and rarely exceeds 10 cm, sometimes reaching 13 cm.

The head of the spined loach is very small and strongly compressed from the sides; of 6 short and relatively thin antennae - two stand in the middle of the upper lip, two in the corners of the mouth and two on the chin; scales are very small, barely noticeable without the help of a magnifying glass; and the lateral line is fully developed only on the front part of the body.

The spined loach's back is yellow or dirty yellow in color, with black-brown spots of varying sizes and shapes.

One row of rather large roundish spots occupies the very ridge of the back, two rows of small specks go slightly lower, on the sides of the back, and a row of large spots stretches along the sides of the body; sometimes, however, all the spots of one row merge into one continuous longitudinal stripe.

The throat and belly are pale yellow, without spots; all fins are light gray, of which the dorsal and caudal ones are dotted with rows of dark spots or dark transverse stripes; the eyes are very small, prominent, located almost at the very forehead, yellowish in color.

The lifestyle of this small fish is very famous. Like the loach, it can live in any water, both running and stagnant, both in springs and dug ponds, even ditches, and only beyond the Urals it is found almost exclusively in rivers and canals, very rarely in lakes.

Most of all, it seems, she loves channels with a slow flow, oxbow lakes and flood lakes, and she prefers a silt-sandy bottom and shallow water; in the sand it digs out entire passages for itself and often lives together with lamprey larvae; in general, it mostly hides in the sand or under stones, which is why char is seen much less often.

In summer, the spined loach stays more in filamentous algae ( Spirogyra), tina ( gill, gill), in shallow places with a weak current or even no current, in which they probably find food consisting of small organisms that huddle here in large numbers.

Pike

If the water in the pond is cold, for example, from springs located at the bottom or from a spring stream supplying water to the pond, pike can be bred.

Just by the appearance of a pike one can judge its agility and predatory nature.

The almost cylindrical body ends in a huge long and flat head, shaped like a shuttle, with a protruding lower jaw; its wide mouth is studded above and below with continuous sharp crossed teeth.

The long and flat head, reminiscent of a crocodile, and the dorsal fin set far back distinguish it from all other freshwater fish.

The pike's eyes are relatively very mobile: it sees almost as well above itself as from the side.

Pike scales are small, smooth; her back is dark, the sides of her body are gray or grayish-green with more or less significant yellowish spots and stripes.

The whitish belly is usually dotted with grayish specks; unpaired fins are brownish with black specks or sinuous edges, paired fins are orange.

However, the color of this fish is very variable.

Pike has a very wide distribution. Rivers and flowing lakes with reedy and grassy banks and bays constitute its favorite habitat, which explains why it is so rare in some mountain rivers of the Northern Urals.

But, in addition to rivers and flowing lakes, pike is found in abundance in many stagnant waters, in ponds that do not freeze in winter, even swamps that give rise to rivers, and finally, in deep holes from brick factories and slab breaks.

In the north you can often find it in lakes that are almost completely covered in quagmire, in which only a few so-called fish remain. "windows".

In spring, pike are found even in shallow holes and in puddles of flooded meadows, where they enter during spawning.

In general, it is almost as unpretentious in its habitat as crucian carp, and, like it, lives in brackish lakes.

Lakes with sulfurous water also abound in both pike and perch. But in shallow waters that freeze to the bottom, pike cannot overwinter, and in severe winters they die in large numbers even in deep lakes, if there are no springs in them or no ice holes have been made.

The cause of death is “dying” or “death”, which is caused by the development of harmful gases from rotting plant residues, and sometimes from the high content of iron oxides.

Everywhere, both in rivers and lakes, pike choose as their habitat places that are not very deep, grassy, ​​and usually stay near the banks.

Only very large ones live at depth, in pits and under steep ravines, where large fish are kept, which they feed on.

Small and medium-sized pike constantly live in the reeds, in the grass and, in the absence of one or the other, burrow into the moss or hide behind snags, under bushes, overhanging banks, large stones, etc. shelters.

Most believe that the pike, as a predator, causes enormous harm to the fish population and fisheries, that it is a water wolf that should be exterminated by all possible means until it is completely eradicated. In their opinion, if there are no pikes, the number of fish will increase significantly.

This view is not entirely correct and is based on an incorrect assessment of the importance in the economy of nature of predatory fish in general, and in particular the pike, and on exaggerated concepts of the number of fish destroyed by it.

The fact is that, with very rare exceptions, i.e., when absolutely correct fish farming is carried out and valuable fish are bred artificially and at great expense, pike or other predators are even necessary.

In “wild” and “semi-wild” waters, pike serve, as it were, as regulators of the fish population: by eating low-value small items, sick and weak fish, they enable larger and healthier individuals to grow faster and produce healthier offspring.

According to these writers, the pike not only eats twice as much fish per week as it weighs itself, but can eat the same amount by weight in one day, which is physically completely impossible.

Observations and facts show us that pike digests food very slowly, which is why it eats periodically; Having filled her stomach to the brim, she digests the contents for a very long time, then begins to “eat” again.

Many fables, fairy tales and legends have been invented about pike. And this is not surprising. Pike is a well-known freshwater predator that can live in any lake, river, pond, or small fish tank. It does not live only in mountain rivers and in ponds, which completely freeze in winter.

Many people think that she can live 100 years or more. All these are fictions and myths. Like all living things, it has its own period of time. So how many years does a pike live? This article will tell you about this.

Cunning and evil

The body structure of the pike suggests that it is a predatory and voracious fish. Its body is oblong, compressed at the sides, adapted for fast and swift throws. Hunts from ambush, quickly and unexpectedly.

Half of the head is occupied by a mouth studded with sharp teeth, and the snout is flattened and elongated. The teeth are located on the palatine bones, tongue, and lower jaw. They fall out one by one over the course of a year, and new ones grow in their place. The fish has good eyesight; the structure of its eyes allows it to see in front, to the side and above itself.

Pike is a cautious and cunning predator. It's rare that a fish manages to escape the sharp teeth of this hunter. She fearlessly attacks prey, which is 1/3 of her weight. In addition to fish, it feeds on frogs, lizards, and snakes. In times of famine, he does not disdain his relatives.

Waterfowl chicks are also targeted by pike. She loves to eat food waste that is thrown into the river. The pike swallows its prey whole (like a python) and does not go hunting until it has digested it. An adult pike weighing 10-12 kg needs to hunt 1-2 times a week.

Already in the 16th and 17th centuries, people thought about how many years a pike lives. Fish, it seemed to them, could exist for 100, 200 or even more years. How many fables have been invented about this! But in reality, pike do not live that long. The longest-lived fish is the catfish, which often celebrates its 100th anniversary.

How does pike grow and how many years does it live?

It would seem that the predator is invulnerable and can easily live for decades. But it's not that simple. Pike, like any other fish, is subject to catch and attack by other predators, such as otters.

Its eggs, which it lays in early spring, are readily eaten by migratory birds. Young pike are attacked by their relatives, who are larger and stronger. Those pikes that have managed to mature often become ill with various diseases or die from poor environmental conditions. Well, how many years does a mature and adult pike live?

Weight and age

The body weight and age of this fish are closely related to each other. The older the pike, the heavier it is. The more likely she is to live to see

Some sources claim that pike live 30 years or more. Accordingly, the body weight of a fish of this age will be about 40 kg. This is due to the fact that during the first 3 years the mass of an individual reaches only 1 kg. And then every year she adds 1 kg.

Thus, a pike aged 4-5 years will weigh 2-3 kg with a body length of 70-75 cm. Adults aged 10-12 years weigh approximately 12-16 kg. Old pikes that live to be 25-30 years old weigh 30-40 kg.

River life

Is there a relationship between habitat and age of fish? The question of how many years pike live in the river remains relevant and open. If the reservoir in which the predator lives is rich in food and the environmental indicators are good, it will live well until the age of 20-25.

Pike that live up to 30 years are mainly found in the rivers of Siberia, the Far East, and the Urals. This is explained by the inaccessibility of reservoirs compared to the south of the country. Where there is intensive fishing and where poachers hunt, pike do not live to an old age.

There is a legend that King Frederick of Germany ringed a young pike. And after 267 years, fishermen caught it. It weighed 140 kg with a length of 5.7 m. Our Tsar Boris Fedorovich also ringed the pike, which was caught 100 years later. Its weight was 60 kg, and its length was 2.5 m. But these are more legends than an answer to the question of how many years a pike lives.

We present a list of the most common freshwater (river) fish. Names with photos and descriptions for each river fish: its appearance, the taste of the fish, habitats, fishing methods, time and method of spawning.

Pike perch, like perch, prefers only clean water, saturated with oxygen and conducive to the normal functioning of the fish. This is pure fish without any ingredients. The growth of pike perch can be up to 35 cm. Its maximum weight can reach up to 20 kg. Pike perch meat is light, without excess fat and very tasty and pleasant. It contains quite a lot of minerals, such as phosphorus, chlorine, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, fluorine, cobalt, iodine, and also a lot of vitamin P. Judging by the composition, pike perch meat is very healthy.

Bersch, like pike perch, is considered a relative of perch. It can grow up to 45 cm in length, weighing 1.4 kg. It is found in rivers that flow into the Black and Caspian Seas. Its diet includes small fish, like a gudgeon. The meat is almost the same as that of pike perch, although a little softer.

Perch prefers reservoirs with clean water. These can be rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, etc. Perch is the most common predator, but you will never find it where the water is turbid and dirty. To catch perch, fairly thin gear is used. Catching it is very interesting and entertaining.

The ruff has a peculiar appearance with the presence of very spiny fins, which protects it from predators. The ruff also loves clean water, but depending on its habitat it can change its color. It grows no more than 18 cm in length and gains weight up to 400 grams. Its length and weight directly depend on the food supply in the pond. Its habitat extends to almost all European countries. It is found in rivers, lakes, ponds and even seas. Spawning takes place over 2 days or more. The ruff always prefers to be at depth, as it does not like sunlight.

This fish is from the perch family, but few people know it, since it is not found in this area. It is distinguished by an elongated fusiform body and the presence of a head with a protruding snout. The fish is not large, no more than one foot long. It is found mainly in the Danube River and its adjacent tributaries. Its diet includes various worms, mollusks and small fish. The chop fish spawns in April with bright yellow eggs.

This is a freshwater fish that is found in almost all bodies of water on the globe, but only in those that have clean, oxygenated water. When the oxygen concentration in the water decreases, the pike dies. Pike grows up to one and a half meters in length, weighing 3.5 kg. The body and head of the pike are characterized by an elongated shape. It’s not for nothing that it’s called an underwater torpedo. Pike spawning occurs when the water warms up from 3 to 6 degrees. It is a predatory fish and feeds on other species of fish such as roach, etc. Pike meat is considered dietary because it contains very little fat. In addition, pike meat contains a lot of protein, which is easily absorbed by the human body. Pike can live up to 25 years. Its meat can be stewed, fried, boiled, baked, stuffed, etc.

This fish lives in ponds, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. Its color is largely determined by the composition of the water that is available in a given reservoir. In appearance it is very similar to the rudd. The roach's diet includes various algae, larvae of various insects, as well as fish fry.

With the arrival of winter, the roach goes to wintering pits. It spawns later than pike, around the end of spring. Before spawning begins, it becomes covered with large pimples. The caviar of this fish is quite small, transparent, with a green tint.

Bream is an inconspicuous fish, but its meat is characterized by excellent taste. It can be found where there is calm water or a weak current. Bream lives no more than 20 years, but grows very slowly. For example, a 10-year-old specimen can gain weight no more than 3 or 4 kilograms.

Bream has a dark silvery tint. The average life expectancy is 7 to 8 years. During this period, it grows up to 41 cm in length and has an average weight of about 800 g. Bream spawns in the spring.

This is a sedentary fish species with a bluish-gray color. The silver bream lives for about 15 years and grows to a length of up to 35 cm, with a weight of 1.2 kg. Silver bream, like bream, grows quite slowly. They prefer bodies of water with standing water or slow currents. In spring and autumn, the silver bream gathers in numerous flocks (dense flocks), hence its name. The silver bream feeds on small insects and their larvae, as well as mollusks. Spawning occurs at the end of spring or beginning of summer, when the water temperature rises to +15ºС-+17ºС. The spawning period lasts from 1 to 1.5 months. Silver bream meat is considered not tasty, especially since it contains a lot of bones.

This fish has a dark yellow-golden hue. It can live up to 30 years, but already at 7-8 years its growth stops. During this time, the carp manages to grow up to 1 meter in length and gain a weight of 3 kg. Carp is considered a freshwater fish, but it is also found in the Caspian Sea. Its diet includes young shoots of reeds, as well as eggs of spawned fish. With the arrival of autumn, its diet expands and begins to include various insects and invertebrates.

This fish belongs to the carp family and can live for about a hundred years. May eat undercooked potatoes, bread crumbs or cake. A distinctive feature of cyprinids is the presence of a mustache. Carp is considered a voracious and insatiable fish. Carp lives in rivers, ponds, lakes, and reservoirs where there is a muddy bottom. Carp likes to pass pliable silt through its mouth, in search of various bugs and worms.

Carp spawns only when the water begins to warm up to a temperature of +18ºС-+20ºС. Can gain weight up to 9 kg. In China it is a food fish, and in Japan it is a decorative food.

A very strong fish. Many experienced fishermen fish for it, using powerful and reliable gear.

Crucian carp is the most common fish. It is found in almost all bodies of water, regardless of the quality of the water and the concentration of oxygen in it. Crucian carp is able to live in reservoirs where other fish will immediately die. It belongs to the carp family, and in appearance it is similar to carp, but does not have a mustache. In winter, if there is very little oxygen in the water, crucian carp hibernate and remain in this state until spring. Crucian carp spawns at a temperature of about 14 degrees.

Tench prefers ponds with dense vegetation and covered with thick duckweed. Tench can be caught well from August, before the onset of real cold weather. Tench meat has excellent taste characteristics. It’s not for nothing that tench is called the king’s fish. In addition to the fact that tench can be fried, baked, stewed, it makes an incredible fish soup.

The chub is considered a freshwater fish and is found exclusively in rivers with fast currents. It is a representative of the carp family. It grows up to 80 cm in length and can weigh up to 8 kg. It is considered a semi-fat fish, since its diet consists of fish fry, various insects, and small frogs. It prefers to be under trees and plants hanging over the water, since various living creatures very often fall into the water from them. It spawns at temperatures from +12ºС to +17ºС.

Its habitat includes almost all rivers and reservoirs of European countries. Prefers to stay at depth in the presence of a slow current. In winter it is as active as in summer, as it does not hibernate. It is considered a fairly hardy fish. It can have a length from 35 to 63 cm, with a weight from 2 to 2.8 kg.

Can live up to 20 years. The diet consists of both plant and animal foods. Ide spawning occurs in the spring, at water temperatures from 2 to 13 degrees.

It is also a representative of the family of carp fish species and has a dark bluish-gray color. It grows up to 120 cm in length and can reach a weight of 12 kg. Found in the Black and Caspian Seas. Selects areas with fast currents and avoids stagnant water.

There are saberfish with silver, grayish and yellow colors. It can gain weight up to 2 kg, with a length of up to 60 cm. It can live for about 9 years.

Chekhon grows very quickly and gains weight. Found in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and seas such as the Baltic Sea. At a young age it feeds on zoo- and phytoplankton, and with the arrival of autumn it switches to feeding on insects.

It is easy to confuse rudd and roach, but rudd has a more attractive appearance. Over the course of 19 years of life, it is able to gain weight of 2.4 kg, with a length of 51 cm. It is found, for the most part, in rivers that flow into the Caspian, Azov, Black and Aral seas.

The basis of the rudd's diet is food of plant and animal origin, but most of all it likes to eat caviar of mollusks. Quite a healthy fish with a set of minerals such as phosphorus, chromium, as well as vitamin P, proteins and fats.

The podust has a long body and chooses areas with fast currents. It grows up to 40 cm in length and weighs up to 1.6 kg. The podust lives for about 10 years. It feeds from the bottom of the reservoir, collecting microscopic algae. This fish is distributed throughout Europe. Spawns at a water temperature of 6-8 degrees.

Bleak is a ubiquitous fish, known to almost any person who has fished with a fishing rod in a pond at least once. Bleak belongs to the family of carp fish species. It can grow to small sizes in length (12-15 cm) with a weight of about 100 grams. It is found in rivers flowing into the Black, Baltic and Azov Seas, as well as in large bodies of water with clean, non-stagnant water.

This is a fish, the same as bleak, but slightly smaller in size and weight. With a length of 10 cm, it can weigh only 2 grams. Able to live up to 6 years. It feeds on algae and zooplankton, but grows very slowly.

It also belongs to the family of carp fish species, and it has a spindle-shaped body shape. It grows in length up to 15-22 cm. It is carried out in reservoirs where there is a current and there is clean water. The gudgeon feeds on insect larvae and small invertebrates. It spawns in the spring, like most fish.

This type of fish also belongs to the carp family. It feeds practically on food of plant origin. It can grow up to 1 m 20 cm in length and weigh up to 32 kg. It has high growth rates. Grass carp is distributed throughout the world.

The diet of silver carp consists of microscopic particles of plant origin. It is a large representative of the carp family. This is a heat-loving fish. The silver carp has teeth that are capable of grinding vegetation. It is easy to acclimatize. Silver carp are grown artificially.

Due to the fact that it grows quickly, it is of interest for industrial breeding. Can gain up to 8 kg of weight in a short time. It is mostly distributed in Central Asia and China. Spawns in the spring, loves water areas where there is an intense current.

This is a very large representative of freshwater bodies, capable of growing up to 3 meters in length and weighing up to 400 kg. The catfish is brown in color but has no scales. Inhabits almost all reservoirs of Europe and Russia, where appropriate conditions exist: clean water, the presence of aquatic vegetation and suitable depth.

This is a small representative of the catfish family that prefers small reservoirs (canals) with warm water. In our time, it was brought from America, where there is quite a lot of it and most fishermen fish for it.

Its spawning occurs in conditions when the water temperature reaches +28ºС. Therefore, it can only be found in the southern regions.

This is a fish from the family of river eels and prefers freshwater bodies of water. This is a snake-like predator that is found in the Baltic, Black, Azov and Barents seas. Prefers to be in areas with a clay bottom. Its diet consists of small animals, crayfish, worms, larvae, snails, etc. Capable of growing up to 47 cm in length and gaining weight up to 8 kg.

This is a heat-loving fish that is found in reservoirs located in large climatic zones. Its appearance resembles that of a snake. A very strong fish that is not so easy to catch.

It is a representative of the codfish and is similar in appearance to a catfish, but it does not grow to the size of a catfish. This is a cold-loving fish that leads an active lifestyle in winter. Its spawning also occurs in the winter months. It hunts mainly at night, while leading a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. Burbot is an industrial fish species.

This is a small fish with a long body covered with very small scales. It can easily be confused with an eel or a snake if you have never seen one in your life. It grows up to 30 cm in length, or even more if growth conditions are favorable. It is found in small rivers or ponds with a muddy bottom. It prefers to be closer to the bottom, and can be seen on the surface during rain or thunderstorms.

Char belongs to the salmon family of fish species. Due to the fact that the fish does not have scales, it got its name. Grows to small sizes. Its meat does not decrease in volume under the influence of low temperatures. Characterized by the presence of fatty acids, such as omega-3, that can resist inflammatory processes.

It lives in rivers and feeds on various types of fish. Distributed in rivers of Ukraine. Prefers non-deep water areas. It can grow up to 25 cm in length. It reproduces by caviar at water temperatures within +8ºС. After spawning, it can live no more than 2 years.

The lifespan of this fish is considered to be about 27 years. It grows in length up to 1 m 25 cm, gaining weight up to 16 kg. It is distinguished by its dark gray-brown color. In winter, it practically does not feed and goes into the depths. It has valuable commercial value.

This fish lives only in the Danube basin and is not common anywhere else. It belongs to the family of salmon fish species and is a unique representative of the fish fauna of Ukraine. Danube salmon is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and fishing for it is prohibited. It can live up to 20 years and feeds mainly on small fish.

It also belongs to the salmon family and prefers rivers with rapid currents and cold water. It grows in length from 25 to 55 cm, while gaining weight from 0.2 to 2 kg. The trout diet includes small crustaceans and insect larvae.

It is a representative of the Eudoshidae family, reaches a size of about 10 cm, while gaining a weight of 300 grams. It is found in the basins of the Danube and Dniester rivers. At the first danger, it buries itself in the mud. Spawning occurs in March or April. Likes to feed on fry and small invertebrates.

This fish is caught on an industrial scale in Edver and the Urals. Spawns at temperatures no higher than +10ºС. This is a predatory fish species that loves fast-flowing rivers.

This is a freshwater species of fish that belongs to the carp family. It grows up to 60 cm in length and gains up to 5 kg of weight. The fish is dark in color and is common in the Caspian, Black and Azov seas.

River fish without bones

Virtually no bones:

• In maritime language.
• In fish of the sturgeon family, belonging to the order Chordata.

Despite the fact that water has a certain density, the body of the fish is ideally suited for movement in such conditions. And this applies not only to river fish, but also to sea fish.

Typically, its body has an elongated, torpedo-like body shape. In extreme cases, its body has a spindle-shaped shape, which facilitates unhindered movement in the water. Such fish include salmon, podust, chub, asp, sabrefish, herring, etc. In still water, most fish have a flat body, flattened on both sides. Such fish include crucian carp, bream, rudd, roach, etc.

Among the many species of river fish there are both peaceful fish and real predators. They are distinguished by the presence of sharp teeth and a wide mouth, which allows them to swallow fish and other living creatures without much difficulty. Similar fish include pike, burbot, catfish, pike perch, perch and others. A predator such as a pike is capable of developing enormous initial speed during an attack. In other words, it literally swallows its prey instantly. Predators such as perch always hunt in schools. Pike perch leads a bottom-dwelling lifestyle and begins hunting only at night. This indicates his uniqueness, or rather his unique vision. He is able to see his prey in complete darkness.

But there are also small predators that do not have large mouths. Although, such a predator as the asp does not have a huge mouth, such as a catfish, for example, and it feeds only on young fish.

Many fish, depending on their habitat conditions, can have different shades. In addition, different reservoirs may have different food supplies, which can significantly affect the size of the fish.

What could be better than your own summer cottage. After all, in this case, you can realize a large number of ideas. One of these is the creation of a small reservoir in which you can spend your leisure time fishing and even commercially catching fish. Further about which breed is better to breed in a small pond near the dacha.

The Best Types of Fish for a Small Pond

To understand which breeds are best suited for a not very large body of water, you should have an idea of ​​​​the most popular types of freshwater inhabitants:

Attention! It is advisable to isolate sick fish as quickly as possible from the rest of the living creatures in the pond. Calculating such an individual is very simple: it swims on its side along a circular path, rubs against various objects, and a white coating can be seen on the fins and eyes of sick living creatures.

The subtleties of breeding fish in a small pond

In order to fully enjoy the process of fishing without traveling far beyond your own dacha, you need to make sure that the pond near the house is created using a certain technology:

Advice. It is undesirable to place fish caught from the river in the pond created by painstaking efforts, as it may be sick. It is better to purchase all the necessary types of living creatures in a specialized store.

That's all the subtleties that you should know in order to understand what kind of fish to breed in a small pond. Happy fishing!

How to breed crucian: video

When buying crucian carp in a store or at the market, any housewife chooses a larger fish. It is not surprising that fish farmers who specialize in breeding fish in reservoirs are asking a very pressing question: how quickly does crucian carp grow?

The growth of crucian carp depends on many factors, and ignoring any of them can have a negative impact

What a fish farmer needs to know

Crucian carp may not get along with all of its “neighbors” in a pond. Therefore, before you start breeding fish in your summer cottage, you need to arm yourself with special knowledge and provide optimal conditions for these unique pets. Moreover, you need to know at what time of the year it is better to release the fry into the reservoir and how much growth the fish will give in a year.

Among the main factors contributing to the successful development of fisheries are the following:

• Any fresh water body is suitable for breeding crucian carp, regardless of the region of our country.
• Good adaptive properties of crucian carp.
• Low requirements for the quality of the external environment (a tributary of a lake, river, or even an ordinary swamp is suitable for breeding crucian carp).
• Quick adaptation to changes in water temperature.
• Availability of natural food in reservoirs.
• Resistance of this fish species to aquatic diseases.
• Opportunity to organize a profitable business.

Crucian carp can be crossed with carp, thereby obtaining larger individuals

It is known that crucian carp has high immunity. In particular, diseases such as rubella and branchiomycosis, which many fish suffer from for many years, are easily tolerated by crucian carp. The problem with fish farming is the small proportion of males compared to females.

This is a genetic feature of the family, and to breed crucian carp, fish farmers use another, no less significant property of the fish. By combining carp and carp in one reservoir, and knowing well how many fish need to be released, it is possible to achieve reproduction based on crossing female crucian carp with males of other fish. It is important that male fish and tall female crucian carp fish match in size. Such offspring grow quickly and gain weight more actively.

To determine the efficiency calculation, you must first study the varieties of this fish, which is divided into 2 main types:

• gold;
• silver.

The growth of crucian carp depends on its variety

Perhaps the most important issues when breeding fish are the following:

• how much does commercial fish weigh?
• how quickly it reproduces;
• how quickly crucian carp reproduce and grow.

Silver crucian carp reproduce much faster than gold crucian carp. So, at the age of 1 year, this fish weighs from 6 to 8 grams, at two years the weight reaches 50 grams, and by the age of three it weighs about 100 grams. If under normal conditions the weight of commercial crucian carp is usually 500 grams, then in special favorable conditions such a pet grows more actively and can gain weight up to 5 kg.

Where do crucian carp live?

If there are too many goldfish in a reservoir and no other species of fish at all, then over time they can degenerate into a smaller breed, with a large head and a small overall weight.

The silver crucian species is more preferable for breeding due to its survival rate, regardless of habitat

Silver crucian carp is more adapted to survive in different bodies of water; its weight usually does not deviate from 1 kg. By the age of three, these individuals weigh about 250 grams, which is 2.5 times the weight of goldfish of the same age.

Experienced fishermen and fish breeders know well how many offspring fish farmers get when breeding fish. Thus, from crucian carp you can successfully obtain different types of fish as a result of crossing. Wild crucian carp have become good donors for many types of aquarium fish, distinguished by amazing shapes, colors and different sizes. Therefore, crucian carp every year become the subject of many scientific conferences, theoretical studies and practical experiments.

The Far Eastern rivers, lakes and reservoirs of Siberia contain tons of commercial fish, the most popular of which is crucian carp. Along with more valuable fish species, it has become an object of commercial activity and a sought-after raw material for catering establishments. In addition to the Siberian district, crucian carp have adapted well to the climate of the European part of the country. Fish are successfully bred in specialized reservoirs, river tributaries, lake backwaters, etc.

Crucian carp can live in a wide variety of water bodies and areas

Newly created reservoirs in any region of the country make it possible to breed new species of crucian carp every year by crossing individuals of different breeds. For fans of sport fishing, private fishing and fish breeding in conditions close to natural, it is useful to familiarize yourself with special literature that has accumulated special knowledge about the breeds and life of fish. According to the generally accepted classification, it includes, among others, freshwater fish - crucian carp. The geography of their distribution is quite extensive - Europe, North America, Africa and other countries.

Within the group, crucian carp belong to the genus carp. Golden (also known as common) crucian carp has a dark color on the back, while the belly is lighter. The main feature of the common crucian carp is its relatively short intestine. These fish use sweet clover as food: various larvae, small invertebrates, and algae. The gills of crucian carp allow it to feed on plankton, filtering the water well.

Population of silver crucian carp

It should be noted that algae and small invertebrate organisms are digested more quickly by the fish’s intestines, therefore individuals that feed primarily on plankton differ from their relatives in body length. Large crucian carp are distributed mainly in Siberia and the European part of the country. If we are talking about the Far East, then its numbers here are small. It lives in a few swamps, small lakes and slow-flowing rivers.

Goldfish are able to survive in a wide variety of conditions

The silver crucian carp is more adapted to the conditions of the harsh Siberian climate, which successfully reproduces in both small and fairly large reservoirs, no matter how many degrees it is “overboard”.

Silver crucian carp are more hardy, not whimsical and spawn well every year in any fresh and even brackish water. How much silver carp grows in a year depends on the conditions of detention, weather, the breed of males and their productivity. A decrease in the amount of oxygen in water, changes in temperature and acidity of water are not a particular obstacle to their reproduction.

Even if the water temperature drops to zero degrees, crucian carp will be able to survive. In conditions of polluted ponds and wetlands, it is able to survive and reproduce, unlike other types of fish. Increasing in weight up to 200 - 300 grams per year, crucian carp is particularly resilient when there is a lack of air in the water.

The ability of crucian carp to quickly change weight and create various bizarre shapes distinguishes these fish from other freshwater fish. Their bodies are so flexible that aquarium enthusiasts have grown amazing specimens: telescopes, comets, veiltails and other fish species. Japanese and Chinese fish farmers bred a unique breed of goldfish, the ancestors of which were golden carp.

Crucian carp is able to reproduce even in a polluted reservoir and at low temperatures

Fish farmers should know that at the age of 3-4 years, crucian carp are ready to reproduce. If you provide special care - abundant feeding and optimal water temperature, then the fish begin to mature at the age of two. At the same time, if the water temperature drops to a level below average, then sexual maturation of individuals may be delayed for a year.

How many times do females spawn?

For goldfish to spawn, the water temperature should not fall below 14 degrees, but the optimal temperature is still considered 18 degrees Celsius. Females spawn in 3 stages, with a ten-day break. Typically, spawning begins in May and can last until August.

It is noteworthy that golden carp spawn faster than silver carp, but they are less fertile. Thus, a female silver crucian carp lays about 400 thousand eggs, while a golden crucian carp lays “only” 300 thousand. How many eggs will survive depends on how actively the crucian carp is growing.

The eggs laid in reservoirs are fertilized by males and, attached to algae, mature within a week. Schools of goldfish reproduce well in ponds every year, with the number of females significantly outnumbering males. In this case, females can interbreed with individuals of other fish species, carp, for example.

The golden type of crucian carp lays fewer eggs than the silver type

In the Far East, a relative advantage of females is noted, but closer to the Urals this balance is disturbed even more. For reasons that are still unclear, males die faster than females, so scientists use biological schemes for crossing different breeds of fish, thanks to which they obtain large, completely new varieties.

In conditions unfavorable for carp, hybrids reproduce well, spawn and raise offspring. Scientists have noticed an amazing feature: heredity on the maternal side is significantly superior to the paternal line. Due to this feature, female crucian carp survive cooling temperatures, pollution of water bodies and other “life difficulties” much better.

At the same time, good physical characteristics, rapid growth and the ability to adapt to unfavorable conditions are passed down through the paternal line. In this regard, fish farmers for breeding try to use healthy and strong male carp, carp and other individuals that do not differ significantly in size from female crucian carp. During the year of living together, the fish manage to spawn three times.

Crossing individuals of carp with crucian carp is considered effective.

Ponds and reservoirs in which carp do not take root are successfully used by fish farmers to raise crucian carp. If other fish do not tolerate stagnant water and salty soils, then silver crucian carp is bred in ponds as the main fish.

In the conditions of the Far North, where other fish species (carp, carp) cannot survive due to low temperatures, silver crucian carp are bred in large quantities. When crossing fish, it is very important to take into account the types of food consumed, because... with heterogeneous food, conflicts within the flock are minimized.

To raise fish for commercial purposes, you can use pond farms previously used for carp farming. If carp are removed from the water due to illness, then crucian carp is used to “treat” the reservoir. It is less susceptible to disease, resistant to temperature changes and is not whimsical.

Silver crucian carp is able to resist many diseases, while other fish die in such conditions

If we talk about how much benefit there is in the ratio of the edible and inedible parts of the fish, then crucian carp uses up to 60% of the product. It has good taste and usefulness. In its composition, the protein is 18%, with a fat content of 7%.

In order for the usefulness of fish to be used effectively, it is crossed and more resistant varieties are obtained, larger in weight and resistant to disease. In large fish farms, specialists ensure that crucian carp reproduce quickly and bring the expected results. The natural plasticity of crucian carp is successfully used by fish breeders to breed valuable species.

If the cultivation of crucian carp is carried out purposefully, then the minimum hatching period is 3 years. With good feeding and optimal water temperature, this fish is capable of gaining record weight, from 1 to 5 kg. After this, the fish farm can become self-sufficient.

The rules for catching crucian carp can be found below: