Amur Pike: A Brief Description

Among all the diversity of fish of the Far East, the Amur pike stands out both in size and color. Limited habitat adds excitement to fishermen. To get an unusual specimen you need to overcome a considerable distance. The influx of adrenaline when catching a meter-tall fish can not be compared with anything. Such sensations can not be forgotten.

Description

Amur pike, a photo of which you can see in the text, got its name from its habitat. According to the classification, this is the class of ray-finned, the family of pike. It is a predatory fish - its young growth very early in the transition to food animal food. The description of it looks like this:

• Body - slightly squeezed from sides, elongated;
• Head - large;
• Snout - elongated, with lower jaw noticeably protruding;
• The mouth is large;
• The dorsal fin is provided with 6-7 spiny unbranched rays, the anal fin has 12-14 soft and 4-5 spiny rays, and the caudal fin is notched;

• Teeth - are inclined to the pharynx, in case of loss of one of them, a new one grows in its place;

The life span of this pike is about 14 years, its live weight reaches 20 kg, and the size - 115 cm.

The body of the fish is covered with shallow scales of cylindrical shape. Her color is interesting. Amur pike, depending on the habitat and age, has different shades of scales and a pattern on the body. It can be golden, silvery, greenish. On the back is darker, throughout the body scatter - distinct dark spots, brown and black, they are on the dorsal and caudal fins. They are regular slanting transverse rows, each having 25-35 spots.

In young animals (up to 35 cm) instead of spots - narrow stripes. This is a disguise for shallow water, where there is a lot of vegetation. While the pike does not reach a five-centimeter length, they feed on zooplankton. Then they begin to hunt small fry. In the diet of an adult there is almost all the fish population of the water area: Chebak, minnow, carp, smelt, podost and others. As a dinner, a frog and a small rodent will do.

Reproduction

Sexual maturity of fish reaches 3-4 years, at this point its length is about 40 cm. The spawning time depends on the time of flooding of terrestrial vegetation. Floods on the Amur have three peaks - spring, summer and autumn. Spring refers to a more constant in time, but in certain years can significantly shift in terms.

Spawning begins immediately after the release of rivers from ice - from the beginning of April and, sometimes, to the middle of June (depends on the temperature of the water), since the high temperature during spawning provokes caviar death. Amur or leopard pike lays from 25 000 to 150 000 eggs. The average figure is 45,000 pieces. The eggs are fairly large - up to 3.5 mm in diameter, yellowish in color. Gluten reliably anchors caviar to dense vegetation in the coastal zone.

Within 10-12 days larvae appear, up to 8 mm long, with a yolk sac. The development of squinting occurs very quickly:

• By June - 5 cm;
• In July - up to 14 cm;
• To a year - up to 25 cm;
• To three years - up to 45 cm.

This species of pike belongs to the main commercial fishes of the Amur basin.

Features and habitat

Amur pike has some distinctive features in comparison with ordinary pike:

• She has a lighter color of scales;
• Young growth color resembles an ordinary pike, the pattern changes with age;
• More cylindrical and smooth body;
• The head to the snout is covered with scales;
• Scales are smaller;
• Close proximity of the dorsal, caudal and anal fins allows you to carry out lightning attacks from an ambush and jump out of the water;
• Young animals live in the coastal zone, and when they reach puberty they go to open zones of rivers and lakes;
• The females in the first years of life are much larger than males;
• It does not grow to such a size as an ordinary pike (it can reach 2 m in length).

This fish prefers fresh water with a slow flow. The main habitat is the Amur basin, the Uda River, the Sungari, the Ussuri, the Tungari and their tributaries, the Khanka Lake, the Kenon, the Buyr Nur. Amur pike is found on Sakhalin in the rivers Tym and Poronay.