Common roach: description, habitats, spawning

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Common roach belongs to the carp family. This type of fish is very common all over the world. Science knows seventeen species of roach. And the most famous of them is ordinary. The common roach also has subspecies: ram, chebak, roach, etc.

Roach

Roach is considered a low-value fish, for an amateur. Therefore, it is mainly sold only locally, it is not exported. Catching roach goes mainly during spawning or in autumn. Roach is considered a weed fish. In Europe, it is almost never eaten. If it sells out, it is only large and at a very low price.

Roach is mainly used to make various feeds for livestock, poultry and pets. In stores you can see bags of dog and cat food. It is their fish species that is often made from roach. In Russia, only ram and roach are caught on an industrial scale. But mostly it is caught by amateur fishermen. Many large predatory fish feed on roach - pike perch, pike, catfish, etc. And some waterfowl - otter, etc. Roach is a tasty fish, especially dried. It tastes like a roach.

Areolahabitat

Common roach is most often found in European territories located east of Southern England and the Pyrenees. And also north of the Alps. There are a lot of roaches in the Caspian and Aral Seas, in all rivers and lakes of Siberia and Central Asia. There is also a lot of it in central Russia, in Ukraine and Belarus. Roach is not found only in cold mountain rivers.

Where does roach live

Where does the roach live? It keeps in flocks in reservoirs where the current is the weakest. This fish is very fond of those places that are protected by snags and hanging branches of trees, as well as reservoirs overgrown with vegetation. The roach avoids fast currents and cold water. She prefers warm and calm.

In lakes, roach is found in shallow waters well warmed by the sun. The roach does not like wetlands and areas with silt content. Before cold weather, she swims to deep waters, where she stays for the winter. After floods and ice drift, this fish is found in reservoirs on floodplains.

Spring roach after the opening of the water tries to stay close to the shores. In rivers, it often goes to the floodplain and oxbow lakes. After the recession of the water, most of the roach remains in the same place. This fish tries not to go far from its own dens.

Description of the appearance of roach

Roach can be small, medium and large in size. There are many similar fish in nature. Distinctive features of roach are pharyngeal teeth, located on both sides of five or six pieces, not serrated. The scales on the body are large. There is a mouth on the muzzle. The dorsal fin begins to grow in the ventral area.

Roach in shape can be different. It largely depends on the food. If there is a lot of it, then a large roach with a high back grows. If there is little food or it is defective, then growth slows down, and the body becomes narrow and long. In the trans-Ural lakes, roach can reach gigantic sizes for it. The average body length of an adult roach is twenty centimeters. Sometimes it can reach up to forty. The mass can reach a kilogram.

Coloring

The back of a common black roach. But maybe with a blue or green tint. Sides and belly are silvery. The fins on the chest are yellowish. The hindquarters and on the abdomen are red, on the back and caudal gray-green with a barely noticeable orange tint. The iris is yellow with a red spot. Some fish of the same color and fins, golden scales with a red tint on the sides and back.

Roach species

Common roach is a freshwater fish, semi-anadromous. There are also individuals who constantly live in s alt water. Freshwater - roach. Ram, vobla live in s alt water. All these types of roach differ in color.

Food

Roach diet mainly consists of animal and plant foods. These are plant seeds, algae and other aquatic vegetation. The larvae, as soon as they emerge from the yolk sac, eat rotifers, crustaceans, insects and small bloodworms. The matured common roach begins to additionally feed on mollusks. The former food becomes secondary. Roach nutritiondiffers depending on its habitat.

She feeds day and night. This fish is constantly on the move. Most often it can be found at midnight. During cold weather, during the winter, roach eat much worse, as it becomes more difficult to get food. But the roach is also active in winter and bites well. In cold weather, she usually swims near the muddy bottom and between the algae. In winter it feeds mainly on bloodworms and vegetation.

Spawning

Puberty in roach occurs two years after birth. Roach spawning begins later than ide, pike and some other fish species. But a little earlier than bream, catfish, pike perch and carp. In central Russia, roach spawns in the riverbed after the water subsides. In the Kama, Volga and Oka, this fish spawns in oxbow lakes and floodplain lakes. On the Don, the lower Volga and the Dnieper, the roach spawns until the flood. In the Don, she spawns early, in March.

The start of spawning depends on the water temperature. If the area is located closer to the south and the spring is warm, the reservoirs heat up faster. In this case, spawning starts earlier. Usually roach spawning begins in late April - early May. At this time, the water temperature already reaches from 10 to 15 degrees. In water bodies located to the north and in the Middle Urals, roach spawns in mid or late May.

Before spawning begins, roach is covered with a rash in the form of whitish spots. Then they become darker and harden. The scales become rough to the touch. Traces fromhard spots disappear a week after spawning.

Before spawning, female roach rise up in large flocks. The males follow them. Due to the fact that fish without milk and caviar are caught after spawning, it is assumed that the sexual products are spawned in one go and ripen at the same time.

Roach eggs are transparent, soft, with a slight green tint. They stick to pitfalls, snags, etc. The eggs are located very closely, and being on the moss, they look like bunches of grapes. The largest clusters can contain over 84,000 eggs.

The number of young roach depends largely on favorable environmental conditions. In stagnant water, spring storms are very fatal for juveniles, during which many eggs are washed ashore. The fry are not at all afraid of the unrest of the water, so they go to the depth only in June. In the rivers, many juveniles are carried away by floods.

Growth of young roach

Young common roach starts to emerge from eggs in a week, in warm weather. Often ten days after spawning. Less often - in two weeks. The fry swim close to the surface of the water. They feed first on their yolk sacs, and then on small plankton. First, the fry hide from enemies among the algae. There, she gradually begins to feed on crustaceans and plants. In the rivers, young roach is located near the baths, rafts. There she hides from predators and finds food.

In July, young fish begin to swim into the open water. She finally leaves the shelter in the formwater thickets in August. In autumn, the young go together with adult fish for wintering in deep pits. In some lakes, roach sometimes come to the surface for food even in late autumn.

Catching roach

The most active bite of roach is in May, June, a week before spawning and the same period after spawning. But fishing will be more successful if the river or lake warms up well. Roach is caught on bloodworms, small worms and caddis flies. In summer, roach willingly takes steamed wheat, maggot, dough and greens. Many fishermen catch this fish for oatmeal, semolina dumplings, moth larvae, grasshoppers and bark beetles.

The most active summer bite is at dawn. In the spring it is better to catch roach in the afternoon. Basically, ordinary fishing rods with a thin line are used for fishing. Large roach are caught in wiring, wading from the coast or from a boat.