Hello Folks! It's time to go underwater and explore the wonderful world of UK fish. Some are spotty, some have stripes. Some prefer lakes, others prefer streams. Prepare to get your feet wet and get your fins in a flap!Each Monday for 12 weeks I will be posting a little teaser for you. Without looking in books or on the internet (i.e - no cheating), see if you can identify the UK fish On Wednesday, so as long as no-one has guessed it, I will post one clue. On Friday I will post the answer along with some additional information for your interest.MYSTERY FISH QUIZ #7Clue: holy
Thanks MrsT ,one could get quite embarrassed with all that praise or very embarrassed when shown to be wrong (again !!)
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Congratulations to all of you who guessed Ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua). First, a bit about the clues: The first clue: Holy. In this instance and perhaps, rather appropriately given recent events, this refers to a Holy person – the Pope. The second clue: not smooth. If a texture is not smooth in nature, it might be considered rough. From this, we get Ruffe.
Belonging to the Percidae family, Ruffe with their large spiny dorsal fins, normally grow to about 4-6 inches long. They have olive green to golden brown upper bodies and are pale underneath. Their down-turned mouth is also a distinguishing feature of this fish and its large dorsal fin is distasteful to predators. Ruffe eat small benthic aquatic bugs and larvae. Ruffe reach full maturity at 2-3 years old and can potentially live up to 11 years old. A female Ruffe can lay as many as 130,000 to 200,000 eggs each year!
A picture of a Ruffe is found here.
Did you know that: Ruffe arrived in America from Europe via ship ballasts.
Keep an eye out for next week’s fish quiz!
Take care,
Claire