The common bream, freshwater bream, bream, bronze bream, carp bream or sweaty bream (''Abramis brama''), is a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an species of freshwater fish in the family

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest v ...

. It is now considered to be the only species in the genus ''Abramis''.

Range and habitat

The common bream's home range is Europe north of the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, ...

and

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, as well as the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. They are found as far east as the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...

, the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

, and the Aral Sea. The common bream lives in ponds, lakes, canals, and slow-flowing rivers.

Description

The bream is usually long, though some specimens of have been recorded; it usually weighs . Its maximum length is 90 cm (35.5 in),the recorded weight is around 9.1 kg (20 lb). The common bream has a laterally flattened and high-backed body and a slightly undershot mouth. It is a silvery grey colour, though older fish can be bronze-coloured, especially in clear waters. The fins are greyish to black, but never reddish.

Similar-looking fish

The common bream can easily be confused with the silver or white bream (''Blicca bjoerkna''), in particular at the younger stages (see picture). The most reliable method of distinguishing these species is by counting the scales in a straight line downwards from the first ray of the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

to the lateral line. Silver bream have fewer than 10 rows of scales, while common bream have 11 or more. At the adult stage the reddish tint of the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

of the silver bream is diagnostic. Like other

, common bream can easily hybridise with other species, and hybrids with roach (''Rutilus rutilus'') can be very difficult to distinguish from pure-bred bream.Giles, Nick, ''Freshwater Fish of the British Isles: A Guide for Anglers and Naturalists'', Swan Hill Press, 1994, , pp 140–144

Habitat

The common bream generally lives in rivers (especially in the lower reaches) and in nutrient-rich lakes and ponds with muddy bottoms and plenty of

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms. The name is an informal term for a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from ...

. It can also be found in brackish sea waters.

Feeding habits

The common bream lives in schools near the bottom. At night common bream can feed close to the shore and in clear waters with sandy bottoms feeding pits can be seen during daytime. The fish's protractile mouth helps it dig for chironomid larvae, '' Tubifex'' worms,

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, biv ...

s, and gastropods. The bream eats water plants and

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

, as well. In very turbid waters, common bream can occur in large numbers, which may result in a shortage of bottom-living prey such as chironomids. The bream are then forced to live by filter feeding with their gill rakers, ''

Daphnia ''Daphnia'' is a genus of small planktonic crustaceans, in length. ''Daphnia'' are members of the order Anomopoda, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because their saltatory swimming style resemb ...

'' water fleas being the main prey. As the fish grows, the gill rakers become too far apart to catch small prey and the bream will not then grow bigger than . If a common bream is malnourished, it can develop a so-called "knife back", a sharp edge along its back.

Spawning

The common bream spawns from April to June, when water temperatures are around . At this time, the males form territories within which the females lay 100,000 to 300,000 eggs on water plants. The fry hatch after three to 12 days and attach themselves to water plants with special adhesive glands, until their

yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...

is used up. Because of their slender shape, the young fish are often not recognised as bream, but they can be identified by their flat bodies and silvery colour. At this stage, the fish are still pelagic, but after a few months, they acquire their typical body shape and become bottom-dwellers. By three to four years old, the fish are sexually mature.

Fishing

The freshwater bream is not generally caught for consumption. Common Bream are popular with sport and match fishermen. However, bream are not as hard fighting as most other fish native to the UK, as due to their flat, disc-shaped profile they are relatively easy to bring to the bank. Bream will eat most baits, especially: *

Sweetcorn Sweet corn (''Zea mays'' convar. ''saccharata'' var. ''rugosa''), also called sugar corn and pole corn, is a variety of maize grown for human consumption with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive muta ...

- two or three grains hooked or hair-rigged. * Maggots/ worms - two or three straight on the hook. * Boilies - the large mouths of Bream will devour most boilies Bream can be caught in rivers or lakes, with generous use of groundbait to attract the shoals. They are not shy fish. Float fishing on the bottom is another technique used. Ledgering (using just a lead weight to hold the bait down) with a cage feeder full of bait, often works better on larger rivers and lakes. the current world record common bream, caught with rod & reel, is , caught in the United Kingdom.

References

External links

*
ITIS 163666
{{Taxonbar, from=Q144534 Abramis Freshwater fish of Europe Fish of Europe Fish of the Caspian Sea Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Abramis