Valencian Parrot
| Valencian Parrot | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Valencian Parrot ( Valencia hispanica ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Valencia hispanica | ||||||||||||
| ( Valenciennes , 1846) |
The Valencia carp fish ( Valencia hispanica ) is a small freshwater fish that is native to fresh and brackish water near the Spanish Mediterranean coast between Tortosa at the mouth of the Ebro and Cabo de San Antonio and inhabits pools, ditches and slow-flowing streams.
features
The Valencian carp reaches a body length of 8 cm, has a compact, laterally slightly flattened body with flat head and back and is a maximum of 4 years old. Males are yellowish to red-brown and have a slightly metallic, greenish or bluish shimmer, the belly is yellowish white. There are numerous narrow, dark horizontal stripes on the sides of the body. Some of the scales have dark edges. There is a dark spot above the pectoral fins. The fins are yellow or orange. Females are light brown, light yellow to whitish, without a shoulder spot and have transparent fins.
- Fin formula : dorsal 10-11, anal 12-14, pectoral 13-14.
- Scale formula : mLR 28-32.
Way of life
The Valencian carp lives in stagnant and slowly flowing, in most cases heavily overgrown waters and feeds on small invertebrates, especially small crustaceans and insect larvae, and on plant material. The fish spawn from April to June at a water temperature of 20 to 24 ° C. The female lays around 200 to 250 eggs, each 2.5 mm in diameter, on aquatic plants near the surface of the water. The fry hatch after 12 to 14 days.
Hazard and protection
The species is threatened by habitat destruction, water pollution and introduced food competitors, especially Gambusia holbrooki . A stock that used to occur near Perpignan in France has now expired. The IUCN lists the Valencia carp as "Critically Endangered" (critically endangered). In Appendix II of the Bern Convention , “strictly protected fauna” is counted.
The Valencian carp is listed by the European Union in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive and is therefore a species of community interest that must be strictly protected, for whose preservation special protected areas must be designated by the member states.
literature
- Reinhold Bech: Egg-laying tooth carps. Neumann Verlag, Leipzig - Radebeul, 1984, VLN 151-310 / 52/84.
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
- Fritz Terofal: Steinbach's natural guide, freshwater fish. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-80014-296-1 .
Web links
- Valencia hispanica on Fishbase.org (English)
- Valencia hispanica in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Crivelli, AJ, 2006. Accessed January 31, 2014.