Female nerfling
| Female nerfling | ||||||||||||
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Female nerfling ( rutilus pigus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Rutilus pigus | ||||||||||||
| ( Lacépède , 1803) |
The female nerfling ( Rutilus pigus ) or pigo is a European carp fish . It is of no economic importance, but its populations are strongly declining due to water pollution and hydraulic engineering measures.
distribution and habitat
The nominate form Rutilus pigus pigus is at home in northern Italy and in the canton of Ticino in flowing waters and the southern foothills of the Alps. It prefers to stay at greater depths and only visits shallow water areas near the shore during spawning time .
The subspecies Rutilus pigus virgo ( Heckel , 1852) occurs exclusively in the upper and middle Danube and its larger tributaries. The current-loving fish live here mainly in the deep areas of the river beds. The low-current bank zones are only visited during spawning time in protected and densely vegetated areas.
features
The elongated body of the female nerfling is flattened on the sides. With age, it becomes quite high back, especially in the front half of the trunk. The fish reaches an average length of 20 to 30 centimeters, the maximum size is 40 to 50 centimeters. The head is noticeably small in relation to the overall size. The crack in the mouth is slightly below and the tip of the head is blunt and somewhat thickened.
The body, covered with large scales, is quite pale in color and has a slight blue-green tinge. The anal and pelvic fins are reddish in color. At spawning time, the males shimmer in a wide range of colors, depending on the incidence of light, and have spawning rashes all over their bodies.
Number of fin rays :
- Dorsal 12-15
- Anal 13-15
- Pectorals 17-18
- Ventral 10-11
- Caudal 19th century
Way of life
The female nerfling living close to the ground feeds on small organisms that it collects from the bottom of the water. In the spawning season from April to May it leaves the deep water areas to mate in the shallow water near the shore. In the protected and at most weakly flowing bank zones, a female lays up to 60,000 sticky eggs that stick to stones and plant material. After hatching, the fry remain in the bank area for some time. After two to three years, the offspring reach sexual maturity. The maximum life expectancy of the female nerfling is around fifteen years.
status
The female nerfling is listed in Appendices II and V of the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive .
In Baden-Württemberg the fish is protected all year round, in Bavaria there is a closed season from March 1st to June 30th and a minimum size of 30 centimeters. Since the reasons for the disappearance of the female nerfling lie less in the fishing than in the pollution of its home waters and, above all, in the construction of water bodies, the species cannot be preserved by fishing bans alone. In the long term, this requires the restoration of near-natural sections of water and the reconnection of backwaters.
In the Red List Austria it is listed as critically endangered, in the Red List Carinthia as critically endangered.
swell
literature
- Roland Gerstmeier, Thomas Romig: The freshwater fish of Europe for nature lovers and anglers. 2nd Edition. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09483-9 .
- Joseph S. Nelson: Fishes of the World. 4th edition. Wiley, Hoboken 2006, ISBN 978-0-471-25031-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of the species occurring in Germany in Annexes II, IV, V of the Habitats Directive (92/43 / EEC) (PDF; 90 kB)
- ↑ Baden-Württemberg State Fisheries Ordinance ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Restricted dimensions and closed seasons in Bavaria ( memento of the original from October 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Frauennerfling. Carinthian Institute for Lake Research (accessed December 6, 2016).
Web links
- Frauennerfling on Fishbase.org (English)
- Brief description from the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (PDF, 55 kB)
- Rutilus pigus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Endangered Species . Posted by: Freyhof, J. & Kottelat, M., 2008. Accessed December 14, 2013.