White Bream

The White Bream is a fish of the cyprinid family. It inhabits rivers and lakes of Europe, the basins of the Northern Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Its Russian name “gustera” is derived from the word “gusto”, meaning “dense”, as in autumn and in spring white bream gathers in huge shoals. It prefers deep quiet water bodies with a lot of greenery and a silted or clay bottom. Its diet is a mixed one: plants, mollusks, worms, insect larvae. The white bream is closely related and similar to other bream. It is distinguished by two rows of pharyngeal teeth, slightly bigger scales, fewer branched rays in dorsal and anal fins. The body is strongly flattened, its color is silvery, unpaired fins are gray, pectoral and pelvic fins are reddish. Normal maximum size of a white bream living in temperate latitudes is up to 30 cm and its weight is up to 400 g. Large specimens weight about 1.2 kg.