Vimba vimba

Vimba vimba
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Subfamily:	Leuciscinae
Genus:	Vimba
Species:	V. vimba
Binomial name
Vimba vimba (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Cyprinus vimba Linnaeus, 1758 Abramis vimba (Linnaeus, 1758) Cyprinus zerta Leske, 1774 Cyprinus vimpa Strøm, 1784 Cyprinus serta Shaw, 1804 Cyprinus carinatus Pallas, 1814 Cyprinus persa Pallas, 1814 Abramis tenellus Nordmann, 1840 Abramis frivaldszkyi Heckel, 1843 Leuciscus parvulus Valenciennes, 1844 Abramis nordmannii Dybowski, 1862

Vimba vimba, called also the vimba bream, vimba, zanthe, or zarte, is a European fish species in the family Cyprinidae. It largely lives in the sea but makes an annual migration up-river each year to breed.

Description

The vimba bream was at one time classified as a bream as it also has a long anal fin, but has now been placed in a different genus. Its body is not as deep as that of the bream. It also resembles the asp but its mouth is small and behind the snout whereas the asp has a large mouth with the lower jaw protruding. This species grows to about 25 to 45 centimetres (9.8 to 17.7 in) with a weight of up to 2 kilograms (4.4 lb). The scales are small and there are about sixty of them along the lateral line. This fish is a deep bluish-green on the dorsal surface and silvery along the flanks. The eyes are yellow and the pectoral and pelvic fins have reddish-yellow bases. The colouring becomes more vivid in the breeding season and males may have the operculum, base of the fins and the belly turn orange.

The vimba bream has a long anal fin

Vimba bream has a typical head form similar to the nase

Behaviour

Vimba breams move in small shoals along the sea coast, feeding on invertebrates which they pick from the seabed, and the eggs of other fish. They leave the sea in May or June, swimming upriver to spawn in fast-moving tributaries with stony or gravelly bases and little vegetation. The males prepares several areas of riverbed on which the females deposit batches of eggs.