| Order: |
Cypriniformes |
| Family: |
Cobitididae |
| Genus and species: |
Misgurnus fossilis |
Alwyne Wheeler (1969) in "The Fishes of the British Isles and North West Europe":
Weatherfish
Misgurnus fossilis (Linnaeus, 1758)
NAMES Fr. Loche d'etang; Du. Grote Modderkruiper; Ge. Schlammpeitzger, Wetterfisch; Da. Dyndsmerling.
IDENTIFICATION Distinguished by its elongate, almost cylindrical body, and the presence of ten barbels, four on the upper jaw, two at the corners of the mouth, and four on the lower jaw, these last being small and difficult to see. The upper jaw barbels are very long. The dorsal fin is behind the mid-point of the body. The scales are minute, the lateral line indistinct and the whole covered with thick slime. It attains 10 in (25 cm) and in eastern Europe 14 in (35 cm).
The head and body are grey-brown, breaking into speckles posteriorly. The sides are a yellowish brown, shading to orange liberally speckled with brown, with an uneven dark band on the mid-line.
D. 8-9; A. 7-8.
BIOLOGY This loach lives in the still water of lakes or river backwaters with muddy or sandy-mud bottoms in which it buries itself. It spawns from April to June, the reddish-brown eggs, about 1.5 mm in diameter, being laid on water plants. Hatching takes place in eight to ten days, at a temperature of 21 °C (70 °F), and the larvae are said to have external gills.
The weatherfish is largely nocturnal in habit, and lies buried during the day. These two factors combine to make it seem much rarer than it is. In the stagnant, marshy conditions in which it lives there is often an oxygen deficiency, and the loach can ascend to the surface, swallow bubbles of air, absorb the oxygen in the gut lining, and expel the remaining gas at the anus.
The males develop small tubercles on the pectoral fin rays during the breeding season, but the second ray of this fin is thickened at all times of the year, and the pectoral fins are longer in males than in females.
It has no commercial value, but can be kept, mainly as a curiosity, in aquaria. As a pet fish it usually keeps out of sight.
DISTRIBUTION
Eastwards to the U.S.S.R.
