''Gobio gobio'', or the gudgeon, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of 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 verte ...

. This small fish is widely distributed in fresh-water streams and lakes across central and temperate Eurasia. The gudgeon inhabits various fresh-water habitats with sandy bottoms. It is a

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

species, and feeds on

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

invertebrates. Its life span is up to five years. Gudgeons are usually smaller than 12 cm, rarely over 15 cm long. The common name

gudgeon A gudgeon is a socket-like, cylindrical (i.e., ''female'') fitting attached to one component to enable a pivoting or hinging connection to a second component. The second component carries a pintle fitting, the male counterpart to the gudgeon, ...

may also refer to other species of fish.

Description

The gudgeon has a long, slender, rounded body and is typically long, but can reach up to . It has short dorsal and anal fins that do not have serrated rays. There is a labial

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...

at each corner of its mouth. It has two rows of pharyngeal teeth, conical, and slightly curved at the tip. Its head is wide and flattened, with a rather obtuse snout, the lower jaw being shorter than the upper one. It has relatively large

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

and there are 40 to 45 of these along the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

. Its swimming bladder is large. Usually greenish brown above and silvery on the sides, this fish has a row of six to twelve faint dark blotches running along the flank. It has a white underside, and its

pectoral Pectoral may refer to: * The chest region and anything relating to it. * Pectoral cross, a cross worn on the chest * a decorative, usually jeweled version of a gorget * Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), a type of jewelry worn in ancient Egypt * Pectorali ...

, ventral, and

anal 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 se ...

s are of a grayish-white color with a brownish tinge. The dorsal and caudal fins are pale brown with darker spots.

Distribution and habitat

The gudgeon is present in freshwater systems that drain into the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

basins. These drainages include the

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

drainage and the drainages further east, the eastern Great Britain and

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

drainages, the upper

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

and middle and upper

Dniestr The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

, the Bug and

Dniepr } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and ...

drainages in the Black Sea basin. It is unclear how far into Asia its range extends. It is typically found in lakes, rivers and streams of all sizes that have sandy or gravelly bottoms.

Behavior

The gudgeon moves in shoals over sandy and gravelly bottoms, feeding on worms, aquatic insects and larvae, small mollusks, ova, and fry. It is normally active during the day. It is capable of emitting squeaking sounds, which are believed to be a means of communication between individuals. It breeds in shallow waters over stones. Eggs are laid from April to August, when water temperatures are above 13 °C. The eggs are released above the substrate and drift with the current before adhering to the bottom. The larvae and juveniles feed on

detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...

on the bottom. The fingerlings grow to some in the first year and this fish can live for up to five years. The species is much valued for its delicate flavour.

Predators

The gudgeon is a common prey of many fish-eating predators like

Eurasian otter The Eurasian otter (''Lutra lutra''), also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia. The most widely distributed member of the otter subfamily (Lutrinae) of th ...

common kingfisher The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of ...

. In Central Europe, on streams and rivers, gudgeon composes up to 45% of the diet of common kingfisher (by numbers, usually between 25 and 35%) and represented the most hunted fish prey. One study has shown that gudgeon composed over 80% of the diet of otter by numbers and over 50% of the diet by weight (Chotýšanka stream, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic).

Status

The gudgeon has a wide range and is abundant in many localities. It faces no particular identified threats so the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has listed it as being of "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q237619 Freshwater fish of Europe Gobio Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus