Kumzha (lat. Salmo Trutta) is considered a lake passage fish, belongs to the family of salmon. Due to external similarities, you can confuse with trout. The main difference is a quick adaptation to various conditions of existence. She easily manages to move from one state to another. So, from the lake form can go to the passing, sea, if she needs it. Is an object of fishing trade, is on the verge of disappearance, but is capable of existence and reproduction in artificial conditions that meet its needs.
Where he lives
The Baltic region is inhabited. The Gulf of Finland off the coast of the Leningrad Region and the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Kaliningrad region are considered the habitat of Kumzhi. For spawning rushes during the rivers, which flow in these areas. Is found in large lakes Ladoga, Onega and others located north. Stream trout in accordance with the name lives in streams and small rivers. Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Vologda, Tverskaya, Pskov, Novgorod region and Karelia the area where this species is found.
How it looks
The appearance of the kumzhi has much in common in comparison with representatives of salmon, but also a number of differences:
- The number of scales located across the fat fin to the side line in the amount of 15-18 pcs., as well as in the very side line, about 100.
- The number and shape of the gill stamens (13–18, in the form of small tubercles).
The color of the kumzhi is brownish with a silver or green tint, silverness can prevail. There are many dark spots on the body (above and below the side line), and they are red on the sides. Different forms differ in size. Passing lake about 1 m long, weighing up to 13 kg. Lake trout is smaller than the passing kumzhi, and the smallest is stream. Length 25–37 cm, and weighing from 200 to 800 g.
The average kumzhi has a length of 25 to 65 cm, weighs from 1 to 5 kg. The Baltic Sea is inhabited by an increased size species, long from 1 meter and weighing 10 kg.
Distinctive parameters of kumzhi:
- Small scales in the tail.
- Small gill stamens.
- Long maxillary bone.
- A pointed anal fin.
Both river and sea water are perfect for habitat. The average age of Kumzhi is about twenty years old, if there are sufficiently contributing normal living conditions for this.
Lifestyle and biology
Passing Kumzha swims into the rivers of the Baltic Sea basin in the fall, since late September or October. Fasteneliness occurs in 2-3 years of life, but the reproduction takes place only a few times during the course of life. Spawning goes in the middle or end of autumn. The pebble bottom is ideal for the construction of nesting. Young individuals of the passage kumzhi do not leave rivers from 1 year to 7 years.
The lake form of the kumzhi lives and is walking in cold lakes, and propagates either in lakes or in rivers. This is happening in the fall, since September or October. Since the lake trout is less than the passage kumzhi in size, it feeds on less prey insect larvae, a small fish.
The fertility of the lake kumzhi is also less 4-5 thousand. eggs (for comparison-in the passage form the number of eggs reaches more than 20-30 thousand.). The stream trout is found in the fast cold waters of the streams, where it spawns in the fall or winter, while the caviar burns into the bottom soil. The fertility of the stream trout is insignificant, much less than other types of family no more than 1.5 thousand. eggs.
What eats
This type of kumzhi uses small fish and various crustaceans, such as worms, mollusks.
It feeds on a wide variety of river inhabitants, insects, their larvae, crustaceans, small fish, frogs and even mice that accidentally fell into the water!
Safety
Kumzha is of three forms: passing, lake and stream. The last two are also called trout lake and stream, respectively. Previously, all three forms were widespread in the basin of the Baltic Sea, but now their number is rapidly falling, and in some places where Kumzh had previously met, it is no longer at all. There are several reasons for this: the construction of hydroelectric power plants and other massive structures near reservoirs, drainage, water pollution, mass fishing, poaching. One of the most terrible threats to all forms of Kumzhi is the illegal catch of fish, especially young individuals.
Interesting Facts
- In fact, all three forms of kumzhi are not so clearly separate from each other. It turns out that in some cases they calmly move one into one. This happened, for example, in New Zealand the stream trout brought there left the river to sea and “turned” on the Kumzha pass. Sometimes it happens that the stream trout shifting caviar along with other forms of kumzhi, uniting with them into one large spawning herd.
- By the way, the name “Kumzha” came to the Russian language from the Sami the language of the population of Lapland, located in the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula.
- The largest is the Caspian Kumzha. There is a confirmation that one day an individual weighing more than 50 kg was caught. The Baltic Kumzha, the standard weight of which does not reach the threshold of 5 kg, was once caught in weight of 23.5 kg.
