Common catfish (European, river) is a large freshwater fish that does not have scales. This predator that lives in rivers and lakes is the largest freshwater fish, second only to the beluga in size. True, it is a migratory fish that enters rivers for spawning.
Classification:
- Class - Pisces (Pisces).
- Family - Siluroidea (Somovye).
- Order - Siluriformes (Somoiformes).
- Species - Esox lucius (Common catfish).
- Genus - Siluridae (Common Catfish).
Spread
Common catfish is common in lakes and rivers in Europe, with the exception of Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and England. Representatives of the species are found in southern Sweden and Finland. The range of catfish in the south is limited by the coastal waters of the Aegean and Black Seas; in Asia, it is limited by the Aral Sea. Common catfish, the photo of which you can see below, lives in rivers flowing into the Baltic, Caspian and Black Sea.
European catfish is a settled fish. He spends almost his entire life in the same pit, occasionally leaving it in search of food. Only during the spawning season, in the spring, does the catfish leave its home and move upstream, going into the floodplain lakes and into the floodplain of the rivers for spawning.
Common catfish does not tolerate muddy water at all. For this reason, these fish go to the mouth of the tributaries during floods - in search of clean water. For the same reason, in floods, he most often prefers to be in floodplain lakes or in a floodplain of a river.
Common catfish: structure
This fish is distinguished by unusual external data. It is unlikely that someone will call him an outstanding beauty among the underwater inhabitants. A huge head by weight is ¼ of the total weight of the fish, a large mouth holds many sharp but small teeth, disproportionately small eyes close to the back of the head. A pair of rather long whiskers is located on the upper lip, and on the chin - two more pairs of small antennae. This is how ordinary catfish looks like. The appearance of this predator is not the most attractive.
The body in the front part is rounded, strongly compressed in the back and sides. It smoothly passes into the caudal fin. The dorsal fin is short, located quite close to the head. Anal, longer fin connected to the tail. At first glance it seems that the huge head of the fish smoothly passes into the tail.
Color
The catfish is ordinary, a description of which is often found in publications for amateur fishers, and the color is rather modest: the back is black, the stomach is white with a yellowish tinge. Scales on the body are completely absent. It is thickly covered with mucus, which protects the skin of the catfish from parasites.
Catfish Size
At the beginning of this article, we already said that ordinary catfish is a large fish, but many of our readers do not even suspect how much. Often, the body length reaches four meters, and the weight is one hundred eighty kilograms. And this is not the limit. There are specimens much larger. Catfish grow very quickly in the first five to six years. Gradually, their growth slows down, and by eight years old the fish weighs seventeen kilograms.
Instances with maximum weight are extremely rare. For example, in the nineteenth century, giants were recorded, more than three meters long and weighing 220 kg. In 1856, common catfish weighing about 400 kg and a length of almost five meters was caught on the Dnieper.
Currently, specimens no more than 1.6 meters long are more common. For modern anglers, it is considered a great joy and great luck to catch fish one and a half meters long and weighing more than twenty kilograms. The maximum weight of individuals of this species recorded in our time is 2.78 meters in length and 144 kg in weight.
Lifestyle
Common catfish is a well-known homebody: it does not migrate from its usual habitat. Near it, as a rule, there are areas of spawning and feeding. These fish prefer a solitary lifestyle, in large schools they gather in cold weather. They fit into deep holes and stop eating until spring.
Common catfish - a large predator leading a near-bottom lifestyle. He feels most comfortable in quiet areas of the reservoir. He needs pits, driftwood, caves.
Common catfish hunts from an ambush. Lurking in a secluded place, he makes a quick throw and catches his victim. In shallow water, where you can see the progress of young fish, a flock of catfish usually hunts. They line up against the tide, open their mouths and swallow flocks of small fish. During the day, ordinary catfish lie down in a pit or cave, and go hunting only at night or at dusk. A mustache and sensitive skin help him find his victim.
In October – November, ordinary catfish ceases to eat and lies in pits earlier than other fish, while it bury its head in silt. Since catfish do not pose any danger to other underwater inhabitants at this time, another large fish is placed in the same pits for wintering, most often they are carp.
Nutrition
Since ordinary catfish is a predator, it is completely natural that the basis of its diet is fish, and of all sizes and species. Large individuals weighing more than 30 kg are rather clumsy and clumsy creatures. They, as a rule, catch fry, which they drag into the mouth with water. Sometimes they, hiding in a secluded corner, attract a larger fish with a mustache, which under water resembles worms.
Large specimens prey on any living creature that floats on water: waterfowl and their chicks, small animals.
In addition, catfish also feeds on:
- crayfish;
- leeches;
- river mollusks;
- creeping out;
- frogs.
Breeding
Like most predatory fish, common catfish grows up very quickly and becomes sexually mature in the fourth year of life. The ability to reproduce in this species of catfish occurs when the fish reaches a size of about 60 cm and a weight of 3 kg. Such parameters are characteristic of a five-year-old catfish. Depending on which region the common catfish lives in, breeding (spawning) can occur in summer or spring.
For this process, a water temperature of +17 ... + 20 ° C is required. Under favorable conditions, females of European catfish toss two servings of caviar - up to 30 thousand eggs. The heavier and larger the female, the more caviar she tosses. The size of the eggs is no more than three millimeters.
In preparation for spawning, the female arranges a nest at the bottom of the lake or river. As a rule, this is a rounded shallow hole, overgrown with aquatic plants. It is located in shallow water, at a distance of not less than seventy centimeters from the surface of the water.
The caviar is large and sticky, so it instantly sticks to the walls and bottom of the nest.
Eggs develop very quickly - 3-10 days. First, larvae are formed from eggs. Then the yolk sac resolves , and fry, no more than 15 mm long, are born. All this time the male guards the nest. Young growth is very fast, especially in the southern rivers. In the first year of life, the fry grows to 40 cm and gains about 500 grams. At the same time, a high percentage of death of individuals at a young age is noted. Only 5% of young catfish of this variety survive to the age of one year.
Life after spawning
After breeding, catfish return to their usual habitats - deep holes. The inaccessible and deeper the pit, the more shelters and snags in it, the more numerous and larger the catfish living in it. At the same time, silence and the presence of shelters in fish habitats are more important than the depth of the reservoir. Young specimens weighing less than 15 kg swim at a depth of three meters, usually at dams, under overhanging shores or under the roots of washed trees.
Common catfish: life expectancy
This fish belongs to centenarians. Scientists claim that they can live up to fifty years. But not every ordinary catfish survives to such a venerable age. How long do these fish live in vivo? The average life expectancy is (under favorable conditions) thirty to thirty-five years.
Catfish
This is a very exciting process for both professional fishers and amateurs. The best time to catch this fish is summer. A good nibble happens in calm warm weather after sunset and before dawn. Catfish feed constantly, but not with the same greed. At dawn, before sunrise and night, catfish peck quite actively. And if it drizzles a little rain, then fishing is possible throughout the day.
It is more profitable to tackle tackle not over the pit itself, but on the way of night catfish hunting. Usually he goes the same way. The best place is the rapids, which are especially rich in live bait, which can be any fish that are characterized by long survivability. An excellent nozzle, according to the fishermen, is a loach, but sometimes the catfish breaks it, because the fish is strung on the lips.
Large fish are often used as bait, although this is not entirely justified. Offal of fish and poultry, leeches, fried bird, a piece of catfish meat are not interested. But the smell of burning wool or feathers for this fish is very attractive. You can use crayfish for bait during molting, when the carapace is very soft.
Perhaps the frog is the cat's favorite treat. An interesting method of fishing is based on this preference. Donks are used to catch catfish, throwing bait in the alleged feeding places of this fish.
The rod must be tied to a driven stake in the ground or strong branches, since the bite of even four-kilogram specimens is very sharp and in a matter of seconds the rod breaks. Experienced anglers argue that the bite can be so powerful that a fishing rod (test 190 g) 1.9 meters long, like a spring, takes off into the air and a completely new monofore (0.3) breaks at the same moment.
Economic value
Common catfish is a commercial species. Its value lies not only in tender and fatty meat: excellent glue was obtained from the swimming bladder of this fish, and in antiquity the washed catfish skin was used as “glass” in the windows. In the thirties of the last century, its catches in some reservoirs reached 4.2 thousand tons, but today they have significantly decreased.
Security status
Unfortunately, due to uncontrolled fishing, including poaching, the abundance of common catfish has decreased almost everywhere. In many reservoirs where he used to live in large numbers, catfish became a rare guest. In this regard, in many regions he is under protection. At the edges of the range, catfish is especially rare, for example, in Karelia in 1995 it was listed in the Red Book as an endangered rare species.