Bleak content in the aquarium. Description of the small fish Verkhovka (verkhovka) and its fishing
Verkhovka common
Leucaspius delineatus
Comfortable water parameters: 15-23°С,
dH 10-20°,
pH 6.5-7.5.
Aggressiveness: not aggressive.
Verkhovka's birthplace- central and eastern Europe.
IN Erkhovka or oatmeal is a small fish from the carp family. The length of this fish is only 4-5 centimeters; occasionally larger specimens are found - up to 9 centimeters.
The fish weighs approximately 3-7 grams. The Verkhovka is very similar to a small bleak, but if the body of the latter is more elongated, then the body of the former is wider, as is the head. The crown is also distinguished by a short lateral line, which extends to the first rows of scales.
All top dogs are very peace-loving, gregarious, and active. They stay in the upper and middle layers of water. Can be kept in a community aquarium with thickets of plants and free space for swimming.
Feeding aquarium fish OK must be correct: balanced, varied. This fundamental rule is the key to the successful keeping of any fish, be it guppies or astronotuses. The article talks about this in detail, it outlines the basic principles of the diet and feeding regime for fish.
In this article, we note the most important thing - feeding fish should not be monotonous; the diet should include both dry food and live food. In addition, you need to take into account the gastronomic preferences of a particular fish and, depending on this, include in its diet food either with the highest protein content or, conversely, with plant ingredients.
Popular and popular food for fish, of course, is dry food. For example, you can find food from the Tetra company, the leader of the Russian market, on aquarium shelves all the time and everywhere; in fact, the range of food from this company is amazing. Tetra’s “gastronomic arsenal” includes individual food for a specific type of fish: goldfish, cichlids, loricariids, guppies, labyrinths, arowanas, discus, etc. Tetra has also developed specialized foods, for example, to enhance color, fortified, or for feeding fry. Detailed information You can find out about all Tetra feeds on the company’s official website -
It should be noted that when purchasing any dry food, you should pay attention to the date of its manufacture and shelf life, try not to buy food in bulk, and also store the food in a closed state - this will help to avoid the development of pathogenic flora in it.
The ability for self-reproduction of these fish begins in the 2nd year of life, when the body reaches a length of 4 centimeters and a weight of 5 grams. Females lay eggs on the roots of ferns, on the leaves of water lilies and arrowheads. The eggs are very small and transparent. It is interesting that one verkhova lays from one to four thousand eggs per season. The fish begins to spawn in May, at a temperature of 15 degrees, laying the first portion of eggs. When the temperature is even higher, the verkhovka sweeps out the next batch. The lifespan of verkhovkas is usually 3-4 years.
All of the above is just the fruit of observing this type of aquarium fish and collecting various information from owners and breeders. We would like to share with visitors not only information, but also with live emotions, allowing you to penetrate the world of aquariums more fully and subtly. Register on, participate in discussions on the forum, create profile topics where you will talk about your pets in the first person and first-hand, describe their habits, behavior and content, share with us your successes and joys, share and learn from experience others. We are interested in every bit of your experience, every second of your joy, every awareness of a mistake, which makes it possible for your comrades to avoid the same mistake. The more of us there are, the more pure and transparent drops of goodness there are in the life and everyday life of our seven billion society.
Video with Verkhovka
Keeping fish from local waters
Can I use well or spring water? Usually, a significant amount of mineral salts and other substances are dissolved in the water of these sources. Therefore, before using this water, its properties are checked. How do they do this? In a glass jar (or some other glass container), the water settles for three to four days. Then it is thoroughly purged. A control fish is placed in a vessel with test water and observed for several days. If she feels normal, then the water is suitable for keeping fish. The water temperature in an aquarium with fish from local reservoirs should be plus 15-18 ° C, that is, significantly lower than for exotic ones. Water hardness and pH values are the same as for aquariums with exotic fish. The methods for preparing water are also the same. What local fish can be stocked in an aquarium? Crucian carp, carp or various breeds of carp bred from it, bitterling, silverback, loach, tench, rudd, fry of a number of other local fish - as you can see, there is a considerable choice.
When populating an aquarium, it should be taken into account that the most viable fish in its conditions are those from stagnant lakes, ponds or reservoirs with a weak current. In addition, it must be borne in mind that fish caught in the fall are hardier than fish caught in spring or summer: the latter are less able to tolerate sudden temperature fluctuations. Most of our local fish are more durable than exotic fish. So, for example, carp lives about 40 years, other carp - 10-15 years. Keeping fish from local reservoirs is also interesting because they are attractive for their appearance, habits and other characteristics. When populating an aquarium, you must remember that you cannot place predatory and “peaceful” fish together. Predatory fish are considered to be those that feed on live fish. Peaceful fish feed on invertebrate animals or plants.
Predatory species include: pike, perch, pike perch, catfish, burbot. Among the peaceful ones are bream, roach, rudd, ide, verkhovka, bitterling, loach, crucian carp, carp and others. The most common inhabitant of stagnant waters of local reservoirs is crucian carp. This is where we begin our story. Crucian carp. There are two types of crucian carp: common (golden) with golden scales and silver, whose scales are silver. Crucian carp is a bottom fish and feeds on bloodworms, algae, and small mollusks; It is very unpretentious, which is explained by the difficult conditions of its life in natural reservoirs. Muddy reservoirs, the bottom of which is covered with silt, coastal thickets of swampy reservoirs - favorite places crucian carp Here it grows, reproduces, and feels great.
In some reservoirs, the weight of crucian carp reaches 500-600 g. But more often its weight is 150-200 g. In an aquarium, you should not get carried away with the size of the fish. On the contrary, we must try to keep it smaller. However, there is no reason to fear that crucian carp will grow significantly in a medium-sized aquarium. In aquarium conditions their weight will not exceed 100 g. Gorchak. Found mainly in weakly flowing waters. Interesting fish, silvery-green in color with large scales, an oval, zigzag body, a high back and slightly compressed sides. It has long been noted that where the bivalve molluscs pearl barley and toothless are found, bitterling can also be found. This is due to mutual interest. The relationships between these animal species were discovered more than a hundred years ago by Kharkov University professor A.F. Maslovsky.
We recommend placing in the aquarium both bitterling and toothless, which take root better in aquarium conditions than pearl barley. A female bitterling with a plump belly tries with her long ovipositor to get into the slightly open valves of the toothless. The male, helping her, taps his nose on the shell of the mollusk, as if asking: “Open, please!” And a miracle happens: the stubborn, timid mollusk hospitably opens its valves so that the female bitterling can place eggs in the folds of his manga, which are immediately fertilized by the male. Inside the toothless shell, as if in a shelter, the eggs are preserved and develop until the bitterling offspring hatch from it. But the most surprising thing is that without the participation of the toothless, the reproduction of bitterling is impossible.When you look at the mirror surface of the river in summer, it’s easy to notice small and playful silver fish. This is the Verkhovka. They are called so because they float near the surface of the water. It is not difficult to keep verkhovok in an aquarium, as they are unpretentious. Greenish-yellow, as if covered with a fine mesh, the scales of the apex shine and sparkle with every rapid movement of the fish. Verkhovkas must be placed in schools in the aquarium, since these fish cannot tolerate loneliness. It should be remembered that the aquarium in which verkhovkas live is usually only half filled with water and carefully covered with glass. The fact is that on warm moonlit nights the Verkhovs start up on the river fun game: they quickly jump out of the water and, flashing with silver scales, dive into the water again. Fish do not give up these habits even in an aquarium. No matter how high it is, they jump out of it and, falling to the floor, die. Therefore, it is recommended to fill the aquarium only halfway with water and cover it with glass.
The water in the aquarium should be clean, transparent and well aerated. Tench. The tench has a different character. In contrast to the Verkhovka, he prefers solitude. It got its name from its amazing ability to change its color. When taken out of the water, it becomes covered with dark spots. The greenish-yellow with a golden tint, the color of tench becomes lighter, the clearer the water in the aquarium. Lazy and slow in its movements, the tench is a homebody. Once he has chosen a corner for himself, he does not want to leave it. It is very interesting to watch his habits. With the onset of cold weather, tench begin to look for company, and fish gather in schools. Roach, Silvery-white with a pinkish tint, the roach is distinguished by the difference in the color of its fins: the dorsal and caudal fins are greenish-pink, and the pectoral fins are light yellow or orange. Roach loves long journeys across expanses of water. Being deprived of this opportunity in an aquarium, she still feels good in it.
She should be kept until she matures. Sticklebacks. These fish are so named because their front dorsal fin is transformed into sharp spines: three for the three-spined stickleback and 7-12 for the nine-spined stickleback. The stickleback is remarkable not only for its appearance, but also for its habits and way of life. These fish are found in the basins of the Black, Azov and northern seas, in rivers and lakes Leningrad region and in other bodies of water. Sticklebacks love quiet currents and are found in both fresh and brackish water. During spawning, the sides and abdomen of males become thick, black, and the abdominal spines become snow-white. Stickleback is especially interesting during the spawning period.
In the spring - in April or early May - male sticklebacks take on a brighter, mating color: the abdomen becomes bright red and the back green. They move away from their plump friends, who swim in flocks. Each male chooses a place to build a nest. He usually finds it at the bottom or among plants. Most often, he digs a hole in the mud and strengthens it. Sticklebacks especially love thickets of water lilies. Tearing off pieces from them, the male skillfully lines the side walls, and then the roof of the nest, gluing “ construction material» mucus secreted by his body. The most interesting thing is that, having built a nest, the male carefully smoothes, levels, and preens it, throwing out the excess and expanding the entrance hole.
The posterior opening remains narrow and sometimes completely absent. The finished nest of the three-spined stickleback is a ball, which is not easy to notice in the water. Built from and attached to plants, the nest blends into the overall green background. When the nest is ready, the male returns to the flock to select a mate ready to lay eggs. While playing with her, he drives the female into the nest. The female swims into the entrance hole, lays a few eggs and swims out through the rear hole. At this time, the male is in an extremely excited state. As soon as the female finishes spawning, he, in turn, swims into the nest and pours milk on the eggs. But the male does not rest on this. Soon he brings another girlfriend to the nest, then a third. This is repeated until the nest is filled with eggs. However, the troubles of a caring male do not end there. He vigilantly guards his nest, jealously protecting it from enemies. This continues for 10-15 days. At this time, the male works selflessly: by swinging his fins, he creates water movement in front of the entrance hole of the nest, thereby ensuring ventilation and water circulation. After a few days, stickleback fry begin to emerge from the nest.
In the first days, the father allows the babies to move away from the nest and watches them vigilantly. Only after making sure that the fry have become independent, he stops guarding and leaves his “post”. It should be borne in mind that sticklebacks require a spacious aquarium with a thick layer of sand on the bottom and plants: water lilies, egg capsules and others. Sexual maturity in sticklebacks occurs in the second year. Sticklebacks are extremely voracious. As soon as you give them food, they race towards it, often injuring each other in the fight for the tidbit. It is not recommended to place sticklebacks in a common aquarium with other fish. To prevent sticklebacks from getting fungal diseases, it is necessary to add it to the water. table salt(a tablespoon of salt per 8 buckets of water). And, of course, you need to make sure that the aquarium is always clean.
Gudgeon.
Who doesn’t know this modest-looking fish with large scales and short antennae on a thick head? Resting on the bottom with its elastic fins, the gudgeon lies motionless at night and on hot summer days. For hours he can lie quietly, without moving, in a secluded place in the river. The gudgeon usually lives in reservoirs with sandy soil. The body of the fish is elongated, greenish-brown, and sometimes yellow. The whiskers are the gudgeon's organ of touch. It is unpretentious and willingly eats leftovers from the dinner of other fish. In the aquarium, the gudgeon is a diligent orderly.
The gudgeon should be fed with live food: daphnia, cyclops, tubifex. This fish eats little in the aquarium. This is apparently explained by the fact that it is difficult for the gudgeon to immediately acclimatize to new environment. The second reason is the timidity of the fish. Therefore, silence should be maintained when feeding and caring for the gudgeon. You can catch a gudgeon like this: put it in an empty dairy liter bottle a piece of bread and lower it to the bottom of the stream with the flow. In search of food, the gudgeon goes against the current. Smelling the smell of bread, he swims into the bottle. And then all that remains is to pull out the bottle by the rope.
If you look closely at the bottom of a fast small river, you can see schools of small, inconspicuous gray fish. Try to catch a few pieces and look at them already in a glass jar. They are transformed: the scales shine in different colors and shine. The fish are getting better. In spring, when nature puts on its rich attire, the minnow is also very beautiful. Along the black stripe running across his entire body, specks and dots shimmering with mother-of-pearl are scattered like buttons. The minnow's mouth, gill covers and belly are crimson-red. On the sides of his head there are round balls and dots cast in silver. This is the spring outfit of the minnow.
Several plants from local reservoirs should be planted in pre-settled water, after which the fish can be placed in the aquarium. The minnow is undemanding and easily adapts to life in an aquarium. The minnow should be fed with bloodworms, flies and earthworms. His appetite is good. Therefore, you need to be careful when feeding so as not to overfeed the fish. Minnows are easy to catch, as are minnows. A liter empty milk bottle on a rope needs to be lowered to the bottom. The smell of bread or a piece of fly placed in a bottle will cause a minnow to swim and sooner or later get into the bottle. All you need is patience. For the aquarium, you should choose only healthy fish with intact scales.When keeping minnows in an aquarium, you must keep in mind that at first, while they get used to new living conditions, it is recommended to clean and change the water daily. First, a quarter of the water is changed, after a couple of days - the eighth. Later, when the minnows have acclimatized, you can change the water less frequently. Rudd. This fish got its name from its crimson-red fins. An inhabitant of flowing reservoirs densely overgrown with aquatic plants, the rudd is unpretentious and takes root well in an aquarium. This beautiful, active and cheerful fish loves river backwaters, where it can hide for hours in dense underwater thickets. In the aquarium, the rudd diversifies the fish community with its colorful outfit. The male is especially beautiful during the spawning period. Granular spots appear on his head - warts, colorfully and brightly colored. Rudds should be fed live food.
To breed them, you need an aquarium densely planted with myriophyllum, which is necessary for spawning. After its completion, the producers must be removed from the spawning area. After 7-8 days, larvae appear and hang in a vertical position, glued to plants or ledges of the aquarium. It takes only one to two days for the fry to learn to swim independently. In a cheerful flock, they swim briskly around the aquarium, catching ciliates and other small live food. We have already talked about how important it is to position the aquarium correctly. This is of particular importance when it comes to keeping fish from local water bodies. It should be remembered that they, unlike exotic fish, cannot tolerate high temperature. Therefore, we must try to create conditions for them in the aquarium that are perhaps close to natural.
In order to prevent them from hibernating in winter (as happens in natural conditions), it is necessary that the aquarium has summer conditions throughout the year. And, of course, we cannot forget about plants. Underwater vegetable world Our local water bodies are so rich and varied that there is no need to look for plants outside.
Water lily.
Who doesn’t know her, a beauty with silver-white fragrant flowers floating on the surface of ponds or river creeks? The leaves immersed in water have a golden purple hue. In the aquarium, the water lily feels good all winter. However, before planting it in the ground, it must be thoroughly washed, rotten leaves removed and the roots trimmed shorter. When favorable conditions are created in the aquarium, the water lily grows quickly and finally blooms with magnificent flowers. As observations have shown, water lilies grown from seeds in an aquarium take root better.
The egg capsule is undersized.
This is a relative of the water lily. It is distinguished by large leaves, which vary from each other in shape and location. Leaves grow from the creeping rhizome of the egg capsule. Some of them are heart-shaped, others are round, almost transparent, light green, and live in the water column. When the aquarium is sufficiently lit, the egg capsule grows well and even blooms with yellow flowers, similar to a large buttercup. Egg capsule seeds, like water lilies, should be collected in the fall. Duckweed. This plant is usually introduced into the aquarium with live food or other plants. Green round plates of duckweed gradually fill the entire surface of the water in the aquarium.
In our reservoirs there are: small, three-lobed and multi-rooted duckweed. One or more thin roots extend from the underside of its plates. Duckweed is an unpretentious plant. It reproduces very intensively in overhead light. In small quantities, duckweed is not harmful to an aquarium.
In winter, many plants in local water bodies die off. Duckweed does not die. However, in winter it develops only with additional artificial lighting. Topnyak. This plant gets its name from the marshy swamps in which it is found. It is of great interest for observing the movement of juice. The thin, glass-like, cranked stems of the tortoise are completely devoid of leaves. Only at the junctions of the knees do bunches of twigs grow, enveloping the stems of the plant as if in a ring.
In an aquarium, the topnyak is very effective and useful because it actively participates in the biological processing of water, creating a favorable environment for its inhabitants. In the cold of winter, when many plants die off, the marsh grass still retains its bright green color. Stomach grass reproduces very quickly. One has only to throw a branch of it into the water and it begins to grow and develop. The stomper does not require special conditions for this. The only thing he can't stand is transplants. Therefore, once you have placed the stomper in the aquarium, you should not disturb it anymore.
Hornwort.
The leaves of this aquatic plant, due to their large dissection, have the property of purifying water. Dirty settles on the leaves. Worth putting in muddy water a few sprigs of hornwort, in a few hours it will become transparent and clean. But before introducing hornwort into the aquarium, you must thoroughly rinse the plant with running water. It is best to plant it in summer. This plant got its name from its horn-like leaves. Collected in dense bunches (whorls), they sit on the stem at equal distances from each other. The hard, short-serrated, fork-shaped bright green leaves of the hornwort are immersed in the water column and only their upper bunch, in the form of a crown, barely peeks out above the water.
If you look closely at the hornwort, you will notice that its leaves are inflated with a tube. There is air in them. In order for the hornwort to develop and grow well in the aquarium, it is necessary, as soon as it grows to the surface of the water, to cut it from below and deepen it into the ground so that the top of the hornwort does not touch the top layer of water. In addition, it is recommended to change the water less frequently and keep the hornwort away from the light source. Selection of native aquatic plants in summer time quite large and varied. Unfortunately, many of them die off with the onset of winter, leaving behind seeds or buds. That is why plants such as tremulous grass, hornwort, and often hornwort, as well as other plants that continue to live and develop normally in winter in an aquarium, are especially valuable. Hornwort is an extremely useful plant not only for aquariums with inhabitants from local reservoirs. It also serves for spawning many exotic fish.
Bleak is one of the most common and well-known fish in Russia, as it is found almost everywhere. Its body is elongated, thin, covered with large steel scales, sparkling in the sun at every slightest turn of the fish. The back is gray-blue with a greenish tint, the sides and belly are silver with a strong metallic sheen, the upper and lower fins are dirty yellowish. The scales are distinguished by their tenderness and sit so loosely on the body that they fall off at the slightest touch. These scales are used in France to prepare the so-called oriental essence (Essence d'Orient), which is used to tint fake pearls. The method of preparing this essence was invented in the last century, but since then it has been more and more improved and is currently produced as follows way.
Rice. 8.17: Bleak.
The scales scraped off with a knife are placed in water and stirred until there is no silver pigment left on it, which separates in the form of crystalline particles and falls to the bottom. Then all the scales are removed and a silvery sediment, a silvery liquid, remains at the bottom of the vessel, which makes up the famous Essence d'Orient. This sediment is cleaned of impurities with ammonia and fish glue is added to bind it. Then small glass blown balls are taken and carefully put into the holes, drop by drop, the essence, which, adhering to their inner surface, gives them the appearance of pearls. The more irregular the shape of these balls, the more they resemble real pearls. There are such well-fake pearls that they can be distinguished from real ones only by their weight To obtain a pound of such essence you need 4 pounds of scales, which requires no more or less than 15,000 bleaks.Bleak lives in almost all large and small rivers, and sometimes even just in streams. In addition, it is also found everywhere in flowing ponds and lakes, but only with clean, transparent water and a sandy bottom. This fish stays at depth very rarely - only in winter; during the rest of the year, especially in good sunny weather, it swims in schools at the surface of the water, glistening in the sun with silvery scales and its bluish backs. Its favorite habitat is quiet, deep waters, and only occasionally is it caught on shallow riffles, especially on rapid rivers. Extremely lively and agile, she is constantly on the move and scurries busily back and forth, rushing greedily after the slightest speck of float, the smallest midge or worm. But bleaks become especially agitated on warm summer evenings, immediately after sunset, when clouds of mosquitoes and midges huddle just above the water. Swimming in flocks, they then rush after these swarms of pushers and, jumping up one after another, with splashes of water they try to knock down the closest of the midges, which, once in the water, of course, immediately become their easy prey.
Bleak reproduces very quickly and spawns already in the second year. Its spawning usually begins around the end of May and continues almost until the end of June.
The bleak lays its eggs near the very banks of a river or lake - on the grass, in brushwood or stones. This caviar is very small and numerous. Nothing is known yet about how quickly the young hatch from it, and even, as far as I know, no one has made any observations. So it would be extremely interesting if any of the hobbyists managed to breed this fish in their aquarium, for which the main conditions should be: running water and sandy soil.
The bleak is extremely cautious, wild, and, one might say, the only fish of all the fish in my aquarium that not only never took food from my hands, but was even afraid to approach the surface of the water as soon as I raised my hand to it. Many times, in order to test whether hunger would at least make her overcome her cowardice and savagery, I did not even let her eat for several days. But even here, no matter how much I held my hand with the tasty bloodworm above the very surface of the water, no matter how much I teased it with it, the bleak still did not dare to take it.
But this savagery is especially unpleasant when cleaning the aquarium, since in order to catch a bleak, especially a large one, you then have to pour out almost all the water or suffer for hours in catching this savage and break at least half of the plants. In addition, you have to catch it without ceremony directly with your hands, but catching it with a net in an aquarium where many aquatic plants are planted is out of the question. Several years ago I had a bleak, which, after living for 4 years, reached a size of about 3 inches and therefore became too large for my aquarium, especially in comparison with all the other small fry that inhabited it 1. Therefore, I decided to take it out of the aquarium, but I suffered almost the whole winter, broke the abyss of Vallisneria, Elodea and was able to catch it only when, before leaving for the dacha, I had already carried out a radical cleaning of the aquarium, i.e. when I took all the plants out of it and poured all the water to the bottom.
Near Moscow, bleak is found in many places: in the Moscow River, in the Yauza near the village of Medvedkova, where the water of this river, which has not yet been introduced to dyeing factories, is as clear as crystal, as well as in the village of Cherkizovo and in the ponds near the Izmailovskaya almshouse, where it comes from even for sale to Moscow.
In addition to the ordinary bleak, near Moscow (in the Moscow River) another species is occasionally found, the so-called bystryanka, which differs from Alb. lucidus with two black and purple stripes running along the middle of the body, as well as black triangular spots scattered here and there above the lateral line. But it is especially difficult to mix it up during spawning, since then the black stripes take on a lovely blue or purple tint, and the lower fins become orange or even red at the base.
According to its lifestyle, the bystryanka is very suitable for bleak, but sticks to faster water and is almost never found in ponds. The fast grass spawns on rocks and in rapids; its eggs are small and numerous.
1 I don’t know about others, but I find that small fish in an aquarium look much more beautiful than large ones, and therefore I populate it with the tiniest ones possible. In addition, since small ones absorb much less oxygen from the water, you can have more of them in the aquarium than large ones.
