Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Genus and species:	Blicca bjoerkna

William Yarrell (1836) in "A History of British Fishes":

THE WHITE BREAM, OR BREAMFLAT.

Abramis	blicca,	Cuvier, Règne An. t. ii. p. 274.
"	latus ?	Gmelin, Jenyns, Syst. Cat. p. 26, sp. 86.
Cyprinus	"	Jenyns, Syst. Cat. p. 26, sp. 85.
Cyprinus	blicca,	Bloch, pt. i. pl. 10.

IN November 1824, the Rev. Revett Sheppard made a communication to the Linnean Society, of which the following is an extract from the Transactions of that Society, vol. xiv. page 587 : - " There exist in the river Trent, in the neighbourhood of Newark, two species or varieties of Bream. The common one, Cyprinus brama, is known there by the name of Carp-Bream, from its yellow colour, and has been taken of nearly eight pounds' weight. The other species or variety, which I believe to be nondescript, never exceeds one pound in weight . it is of a silvery hue, and goes by the name of White Bream."
While investigating the natural history of the county of Cambridge, the Rev. L. Jenyns has discovered that this second species of Bream inhabits the Cam ; and I am indebted to that gentleman for a specimen of the fish, with some further remarks. Referring to the communication of the Rev. Mr. Sheppard, Mr. Jenyns says: "This second species of Bream is very abundant in some parts of the river Cam, where it is called by the fishermen the Breamflat : it does not attain the size of the Carp-Bream, rarely exceeding ten or twelve inches. It is probably the Cyprinus blicca of Bloch ; though I have never seen the fins so red as they are represented in his figure."
I have been very recently favoured by the Rev. Richard Lubbock, of Tombland, near Norwich, with a communication that this fish is also occasionally met with in some of the broads and rivers in that part of the county of Norfolk ; but that it is limited both as to its location and numbers. Its mode of biting, when angled for, is singular: it appears more prone to rise than to descend ; and the float, consequently, instead of being drawn under water, is laid horizontally on the surface, by the attack of the fish on the bait. A specimen of each of the two Bream described in this work, obligingly sent me by Mr. Lubbock from the same locality, differed much less in colour than those previously received from Cambridgeshire. The example of A. blicca had two rays less in the anal fin than the fish from the Cam.
That this fish is distinct from the well-known Carp-Bream, the description will evince. Bloch says of this species, that it is very common on the Continent, being found generally in lakes and slow rivers; that it is tenacious of life and breeds fast, but is not in any esteem for table, though encouraged as supplying food for Pike and other voracious fishes.
The length of the head compared to that of the body alone is as one to three ; the head larger, and the fleshy portion of the tail deeper, than in a Carp-Bream of the same size, and the fish in consequence has a more bulky and less neat appearance : the diameter of the eye compared to the length of the head is as two to six, occupying a full third ; it is therefore larger than in the other Bream, leaving the space between the eye and the edge of the preoperculum narrower in comparison, and affecting the proportions of the various parts of the head : the irides are silvery white tinged with pink, in the other fish yellow : the nape without any de-pression, the curve of the back uniform : the scales of the body larger ; the vignette shows the comparative differences both in structure and size in two scales, one from the lateral line of each of two fish of very nearly the same length ; the colour of the scales bluish white : the lateral line not quite so low down on the body as in the Carp-Bream ; the number of scales forming the lateral line about fifty the number up the side fifteen, of which nine are above the punctured scale forming the line itself, and five below it : the character and relative position of the fins not very dissimilar, except that the dorsal fin in the White Bream, the subject of the present article, begins rather nearer the head ; but the number of the rays in the pectoral and anal fins differ consider-ably, the pectoral fin of the White Bream having three rays, and the anal fin five rays, less in number than the same fins in the Carp-Bream. The fin-rays in number are- -

D. 10 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 22 : C. 19.

The general colour of the sides is silvery bluish white, without any of the yellow golden lustre observable in the last species ; the irides silvery white, tinged with pink, as before stated, which in the Carp-Bream are yellow ; the fins in my specimen, which has been some time in spirit, are dusky blue, particularly the dorsal, anal, and neat caudal fins ; the pectoral and ventral fins tinged with red.
The vignette below represents a view of the Thames, looking eastward, from Windmill Hill, near Gravesend.

Alwyne Wheeler (1969) in "The Fishes of the British Isles and North West Europe":

Silver Bream [Bream Flat]

Blicca bjoerkna (Linnaeus, 1758)

NAMES Fr. Brème bordellière; Du. Kolblei; Ge. Güster, Blicke; Da. Flire; Sw. Björkna.

IDENTIFICATION Deep bodied, with a long anal fin, a high dorsal, and a relatively small head. No barbels. The body is moderately hump-backed. The mouth is inferior, the lips thick. The eye is large, its diameter greater than the snout length. The anal origin is behind the last ray of the dorsal; the margin of the anal is shallowly concave. The scales on the side are large (almost equal to the eye diameter), thick and rather dull surfaced. It grows to an average length of 8-10 in (20-5 cm), and a weight of 1 lb (453 g). The record British rod-caught fish weighed 4½ lb (2.04 kg).
The head and back are olive brown or greyish, the sides pale with a silvery sheen, and ventrally it is white. The dorsal, tail and anal fins are grey tinted, the pelvic fin tip dark, reddish near its base.
D. III/8-9; A.III/21-3; lateral line scales 44-8; pharyngeal teeth in two rows 5 + 2 on each side (Fig. 69).

BIOLOGY It prefers slow-running waters and lakes and is normally found only in the lowland plains. It is frequently taken in the same waters as the bronze bream (with which it is often confused).
The silver bream spawns from June to July, often, though not always, intermittently at intervals of ten or eleven days, and two or three separate spawnings are made. Spawning takes place at temperatures of 16-17°C (60-2°F) amongst dense weed growth in depths of 2-3 ft (61-91 cm). The eggs are lemon yellow, about 2 mm in diameter, and are attached to the weeds; they hatch in four to six days. The larvae at hatching measure about 4.8 mm. Growth in British waters is fast for the first two years and then falls off; the average in a Norfolk sample was: first year, 3½ in (9 cm); second year, 4½ in (11.5 cm); third year, 4¾ in (12.4 cm); fourth year, 5¼ in (13 cm); fifth year, 6¼ in (16 cm). In European waters the growth rate is slower at first, catching up with the British figures in the fourth or fifth year, and the fish live longer, attaining a length of 9¼ in (23.5 cm) in their ninth year. Males mature in their third year, females a year later.
The food is remarkably similar to that of the bream. Young fish eat small crustaceans, many of them planktonic and including copepods, cladocera (Chydorus) and ostracods. They also eat higher plants and green algae. Around maturity they assume a diet composed mainly of bottom-living organisms, for example chironomid larvae (bloodwords), caddis larvae, mayfly nymphs and insects generally. They also eat crustaceans (Gammarus), small molluscs and plants. The structure of the mouth prevents it being drawn out into a downwardly opening tube as in the bream (which sucks up mud with its food) and silver bream seem to be much more selective feeders. They fast in winter, as do the bream.
Silver bream have little value to anglers, their small size being a disadvantage. They are not fished for or eaten for the same reason. Their competition for food with the bream in its immature years may make their presence undesirable if large bream are being deliberately cultivated. The general similarity in life history between these species presents a number of interesting problems which still need to be studied.

DISTRIBUTION

Eastwards to the U.S.S.R.