| Bleak | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Cyprinidae |
| Subfamily: | Leuciscinae |
| Genus: | Alburnus |
| Species: | A. alburnus |
| Binomial name | |
| Alburnus alburnus | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The bleak or common bleak (Alburnus alburnus) is a small freshwater coarse fish of the cyprinid family. [2]
The body of the bleak is elongated and flat. The head is pointed and the relatively small mouth is turned upwards. The anal fin is long and has 18–23 fin rays. The lateral line is complete. The bleak has a shiny silvery colour, and the fins are pointed and colourless. Its maximum length is about 25 cm (10 in).
In Europe, the bleak can easily be confused with many other species. In England, young common bream and silver bream can be confused with young bleak, though the pointed, upward-turned mouth of the bleak is already distinctive at young stages. Young roach and ruffe have wider bodies and short anal fins.
The bleak occurs in Europe and Western Asia: north of the Caucasus, Pyrenees, and Alps, and eastward toward the Volga basin in northern Iran and north-western Turkey. It is absent from Iberian and Apennine peninsulas, from the rivers of Adriatic watershed on the Balkans and most of British Isles except southeast England. It is locally introduced in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, though.
The bleak lives in great schools and feeds upon small molluscs, insects that fall in the water, insect larvae, worms, small shellfish, and plant detritus. It is found in streams and lakes. The bleak prefers open waters and is found in large numbers where an inflow of food from pumping stations or behind weirs occurs.
The bleak spawns near the shore in shallow waters. Some are found in deep water. The substrate is not important.
Source: [3]
The Common Bleak typically reaches sexual maturity at around three years of age. Its spawning period takes place from April to June when the water temperature ranges between 14 and 15 °C (approximately 58 °F).
During this time, a female Common Bleak can lay between 5,000 and 7,000 eggs in multiple batches. These eggs are deposited on submerged vegetation or shallow areas of the water. Males undergo changes during the spawning season, developing nuptial tubercles on their backs and flanks, while their fins take on an orange hue. The incubation period for the eggs lasts about 2 to 3 weeks.
The growth rate of the young fish, known as fry, is relatively slow, and their primary source of nutrition is plankton. It is also possible for hybridization to occur between the Common Bleak and other cyprinid fish species, such as Chub, Roach, Rudd, or Bream.
The bleak is an important food source for predatory fish. It is more sensitive to pollution than other cyprinids, which might explain the decline in north-western Europe.
Bleak are used as bait for sport-fishing for larger fish. In 1656 in Paris, a Mr. Jaquin extracted from the scales of the common bleak, so-called essence Orientale [2] or "pearl essence", [4] (used in making artificial pearls), which is crystalline guanine. [5]
The ide, or orfe, is a freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae found in larger rivers, ponds, and lakes across Northern Europe and Asia. It has been introduced outside its native range into Europe, North America, and New Zealand. It is a popular ornamental fish, usually kept in outdoor ponds in temperate regions from which it often escapes.
The bluegill, sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or, as is common in Texas, "copper nose", is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands east of the Rocky Mountains. It is the type species of the genus Lepomis, from the family Centrarchidae in the order Perciformes.
The black ruby barb or purplehead barb is a tropical cyprinid fish endemic to Sri Lanka, where it occurs in forested streams from the Kelani basin to the Nilwala basin. They are found in streams on hills around 1000 ft in elevation. The brightly colored population introduced to Mahaweli at Ginigathena, Sri Lanka, is said to have diminished in number due to the aquarium export trade.
The ticto barb or twospot barb is a species of subtropical freshwater fish belonging to the family Cyprinidae. It is a native of the upper Mekong, Salwen, Irrawaddy, Meklong and upper Charo Phraya basins in the countries of Nepal, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. It has frequently been confused with the Odessa barb in the aquarium trade, but in that species the male is reddish-orange.
The roach, or rutilus roach, also known as the common roach, is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the family Cyprinidae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. Fish called roach can be any species of the genera Rutilus, Leucos and Hesperoleucus, depending on locality. The plural of the term is also roach.
The common bream, also known as the freshwater bream, bream, bronze bream, carp bream or sweaty bream, is a European species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is now considered to be the only species in the genus Abramis.
The California roach is a cyprinid fish native to western North America and abundant in the intermittent streams throughout central California. Once considered the sole member of its genus, it has recently been split into a number of closely related species and subspecies.
The blue chub is a cyprinid fish found in the Klamath River and Lost River drainages of far northern California and southern Oregon.
The Lahontan redside is a cyprinid fish of the Great Basin in eastern California and western Nevada.
Danio margaritatus, the celestial pearl danio, often referred to in the aquarium trade as galaxy rasbora or Microrasbora sp. 'Galaxy', is a small cyprinid from Myanmar and Northern Thailand. It has so far been found only in a very small area near Hopong east of Inle Lake, at an elevation of over 1,000 m (3,400 ft). Its habitat is part of the Salween basin, namely the Nam Lang and Nam Pawn Rivers. Discovered in 2006, the species quickly appeared in the aquarium trade, where its small size and bright colours made it an instant hit.
Blicca bjoerkna, alternatively called the white bream or the silver bream, is a European species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae.
The Danube bleak or Caspian shemaya is a species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Iran, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Slovakia, Moldova, Greece, Czechia, Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Afghanistan, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The Malawi eyebiter is a species of fish in the family Cichlidae. This predatory cichlid is found in Lake Malawi, Lake Malombe, and the upper Shire River within East Africa.
The sand shiner is a widespread North American species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. Sand shiners live in open clear water streams with sandy bottoms where they feed in schools on aquatic and terrestrial insects, bottom ooze and diatoms.
The Antalya bleak is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Alburnus. It is endemic to Turkey and is commonly found in schools in clear, vegetated fresh water.
Eastern blacknose dace is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Rhinichthys. Its name originates from the Old French word "dars" which is the nominative form of the word "dart" in reference to their swimming pattern. The western blacknose dace formerly was considered conspecific. While morphologically the two species are not significantly different, they are allopatric. The eastern blacknose dace is found across the southeast portion of Canada and down along the United States' east coast. It is dark brown to olive on its dorsal surface and silvery white below, the two shades separated by the darkly pigmented lateral line. In the breeding season, males develop darker pigmentation and an orange lateral line. Blacknose dace live in rocky streams and rivers where they feed upon small invertebrates and microscopic biological matter and provide forage for larger fish.
The blacktail shiner is a small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to the United States.
Mylocheilus caurinus, the peamouth, peamouth chub, redmouth sucker or northwestern dace, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish from the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows, that is found in western North America. It is the only species in its genus.
Ballerus ballerus, also known as the zope or the blue bream, is a species of cyprinid fish native to Eurasia.
Squalius squalus, commonly known as the Italian chub, or the chubius chub or cavedano, is a species of freshwater fish in the carp family Cyprinidae. It is native to southeastern Europe being found in Italy, Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia.
