Description of minnow fish - what it looks like and where it is found, spawning and taste of meat

Every fisherman dreams of showing off a big fish. The small minnow is far from the dream ide, but it is needlessly underestimated. It is found in rivers and lakes almost throughout Russia, is easy to catch with basic gear, has a delicious taste and is easy to prepare. The minnow is an interesting fish for aquarists. She is unpretentious in nature and in captivity, but is very voracious. The minnow has several names and varieties, differing in color and habitat.

What kind of fish is this

The minnow belongs to the Ray-finned class, the Karpov family, and is classified as a separate genus. Its Latin name is phoxinus.Popular names include sinyavka, buffoon, pied, and meiva. The main species is the common minnow or minnow. This is a river and lake fish that lives in fast currents. It is most common in the European part of Eurasia.

The minnow is not caught on an industrial scale. It is also not interesting to amateur fishermen due to its small size. In Soviet times, the pulp was given commercial importance in Yakutia.

The minnow will take root in the aquarium if conditions close to natural are created for it, in particular a strong current using an aerator. The lake minnow survives in water with low oxygen levels.

How does she look

Myakushka is a small fish 10 centimeters long. Large specimens reach 20 centimeters. Males are smaller than females. The average weight of fish is 100 grams. The common river minnow has a variegated white-green coloration that becomes brighter during spawning. External features of the fish:

• oblong body with spots;
• elongated tail;
• small head;
• rounded stigma;
• scales are soft, small, absent on the abdomen;
• The fins are small, rounded, fan-shaped in males, less pronounced in females.

As spawning approaches, the spots on the sides of the fish darken and the fins turn red.

Based on external characteristics, several types of minnows are distinguished:

Another type of fish is the Chinese minnow, the scaliest one. Its body is divided by a longitudinal silver stripe. Each side is covered with 79 scales.

Habitat

All varieties of minnows are freshwater fish. Their habitats are fast rivers, less often lakes with weak currents, ponds and reservoirs. The pulp is common in Europe, found in Asia, and also in North America.

Minnow habitats in Russia:

• Arhangelsk region;
• Vologda region, Sozha river;
• Karelia;
• Siberia;
• rivers of the Ural ridge;
• Amur river;
• the upper reaches of the Lena River;
• Ussuri basin;
• between the Krasnaya and Tym rivers.

Lagovsky's minnow is found in Mongolia and Japan. The Chinese species swims in waters from the Amur to the Yangtze River, in the rivers of the islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, as well as in rivers flowing into the Yellow Sea in Korea.

The lake minnow mundushka lives in the reservoirs of Sakhalin Island, in the Suifun River, Kolyma, Northern Dvina, reaches the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Arctic Ocean basin, and is also found in the Caspian and Black Sea basins.

Mundushka is widespread in the Ukrainian Dnieper and its tributaries Trubezh, Supoe, Vorskla, and in the Volyn River Stokhoda. The fish was found in lakes near Kyiv, which have now disappeared, as well as in Lake Borovoe in the Seversky Donets basin.

The common minnow loves clean water with a temperature of +12 to +20 degrees.If the usual site is polluted, the fish swim to cleaner places and can reach the sources of mountain rivers.

Myakushki often live in places where salmon fish gather, as there is more food there.

For the lake minnow, the algae-covered bottom of reservoirs with standing water or weak currents is attractive. This species rarely enters river beds, and rises to the surface only in rare cases when there is not enough food at the bottom.

Life cycle features

Minnows gather in small schools and live in one place in winter and summer. Before spawning, they gather in large aggregations, which can contain from several hundred to thousands of individuals. Fish migrate only when the environment changes unfavorably. Adults swim in rapids. The young live where the current is not too fast, as they are not yet able to withstand the elements.

Myakushka has keen vision and a sensitive sense of smell. This helps the fish avoid attacks from predatory neighbors in the pond. Its natural enemies are trout, perch, sturgeon, and pike.

Sensing the approach of uninvited guests, the flock disperses. Fish hide in stones, snags and algae thickets. If predators live in the neighborhood all the time, the pulp becomes their only source of food.

Minnows feed during the day in well-lit areas. In the summer months, during the spawning period, they become especially voracious. In winter, fish activity decreases. Schools lie on the bottom and rarely swim to the shores.

The lifespan of the pulp is 5-8 years, but there are also long-livers. In Norway, a minnow lived in a lake that was 13 years old at the time of catch.

What do fish eat?

The minnow looks harmless and rarely preys on its relatives.The basis of its diet is algae, bottom and benthic organisms:

• rotifers;
• cyclops;
• roundworms;
• Daphnia;
• planktonic crustaceans;
• fragments of filamentous algae;
• larvae of dragonflies, mosquitoes, insects that have fallen into the water, and pollen.

During spawning, especially during the evening twilight hours, the fish becomes aggressive and can eat its own eggs, grayling fry, and small mollusks. The fish absorbs any organic food that it finds in the water column. The pulp gnaws off the fins of larger inhabitants of the reservoir. At the same time, she is able to fast for two weeks.

Aquarium minnows are fed frozen worms, plankton, diatoms, larvae, and daphnia. In the absence of organic food, fish will eat dry food.

Reproduction and spawning

Minnows reach sexual maturity in the second year of life. Spawning lasts from April to July. Fish that live in the lowlands go to spawn earlier, and the inhabitants of mountain rivers later. The favorable water temperature is 7-12 degrees Celsius, and the current speed is 5-30 centimeters per second. The young swim away from the area in which the adults spawn.

Females lay eggs in coastal, well-oxygenated waters, on small pebbles. The diameter of unfertilized eggs is 1.3 millimeters. In one clutch there are from 700 to 1000 pieces. There are 2 times fewer females in the flock than males. This is due to the “mating game” - the males squeeze the female’s sides so that eggs come out.

Stages and features of development of the chaff offspring:

• The maturation of larvae depends on temperature. At 18 degrees Celsius they hatch on 4-5 days, and at temperatures below +10 degrees - on 10-12 days;
• newborn larvae are colorless, 3-5 millimeters in size;
• upon reaching a length of 7-13 millimeters, a characteristic longitudinal stripe appears on their sides, an anal and dorsal fin are formed;
• with a length of 20 millimeters, the fry are covered with scales and look like miniature adult fish;
• in the first year of life, the pulps grow up to five centimeters in length.

The minnow is not highly fertile, but in the absence of commercial interest it is not in danger of extinction. The only case of a critical population decline was in the Moscow region. Myakushka was included in the regional Red Book. In other regions of Russia, fish reproduce safely. The presence of a large population of minnows in a reservoir is a sign of ecological purity.

Information for fishermen

Minnow is a popular object for recreational fishing. After catching, it is used as bait for larger fish: pike, trout, perch. When catching soft fish, it is not the result that is important, but the process itself. To catch a large specimen, you have to wait a long time for a bite.

Large minnows live in algae and snags, are observant and wise. They recognize the danger posed by a person on the shore and swim away. Therefore, it is necessary to camouflage well and use thin gear. Small fish themselves ask to be hooked if they can find a school feeding area.

The fishing season for minnows is spring, summer and fall. For the winter, the fish buries itself in the mud. The first winter and last spring ice are the milestones of the end and beginning of fishing for myaska, when it can be attracted to bait using a jig.

In the warm season, minnows actively search for food at the surface of the water. They are attracted to any movement. Meadlings are not picky, so any bait and bait will do: maggots, worms, bloodworms, bread, grasshoppers.

Minnows are easy to catch with a net, but this is not a sporting approach.It is more interesting to catch frisky fish with a fishing rod with a float or jig.

Catching minnows is good training for new anglers. Experienced fishermen do not like it for its intrusive and even aggressive bite. Particularly voracious specimens swallow an empty hook.

Tips for catching minnows:

• fish can be caught all day long, since its appetite does not depend on the position of the sun;
• suitable places to search for pulp are coastal thickets, shallow waters;
• if there is no bite for a long time, it means the sharp-sighted fish recognized the danger and swam away. You need to cast the bait to the left or to the right;
• the crumbs reveal their presence by splashes on the water surface;
• to avoid spooking the fish, the fishing rod should be held high;
• the bait also needs to be cast carefully, without loud sounds or impacts on the water;
• The minnow quickly swallows the hook and is difficult to remove if it is not hooked in time.

There is a folk way of catching minnows: put a crust of bread at the bottom of a bucket with a hole in the bottom and lower it into the river to a depth of about 1 meter. In two hours, pulp will flow into the bucket; you just need to lift it to the surface. The water will drain through the holes, but the fish will remain.

Taste of meat

The minnow tastes like trout or grayling and is superior to pike, rudd and crucian carp. Large fish easily lose their scales, but small fish do not need to be cleaned and cut to gut them. The insides are squeezed out through the anus.

Minnow can be fried in a frying pan and on the grill, baked, or cooked into fish soup. The fish is deliciously breaded and covered with a crispy crust. The bones in the pulp are not felt and are easily chewed, so the fish is suitable for children's menus. In Soviet times, minnow was a favorite village delicacy.