The Donets ruffe (''Gymnocephalus acerina'') is a species of

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...

native to eastern

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 entirel ...

where it occurs in the basins of 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, Rom ...

and the Sea of Azov. They inhabit freshwater lakes and rivers usually over hard compacted sand. They are predominantly crepuscular and prey mostly on invertebrates (

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

, insect larvae, mollusks), rarely on fish. They are inactive during winter months, and usually move to deeper places until the ice melts.

Spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...

occurs in small rivers with heavy currents. This species reaches a length of SL.

References

Gymnocephalus Freshwater fish of Europe Fish of Russia Fauna of Ukraine Donets basin Don basin Fish of the Black Sea Fish of the Sea of Azov Fish described in 1789 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Percidae-stub