Is rotan fish edible? Rotan fish - what is it? Why does it have so many disadvantages? What to cook from rotan

The first appearance of rotan in water bodies of the European part of Russia was recorded about a hundred years ago. It is not known exactly how this Far Eastern fish, whose habitat was limited to the Amur River and some Chinese reservoirs, first found its way into Moscow reservoirs, then into St. Petersburg rivers and lakes. However, there is an opinion that those who like to keep home aquariums are to blame for this. It is not clear why they were attracted to the nondescript, ugly rotan. Through very a short time it destroyed the other inhabitants, and it became clear that it was not worth introducing rotan into the aquarium with other more attractive fish. And this small but very voracious predator was released into the wild.

Appearance

A hundred years have passed, but even now some fishermen do not really know what rotan looks like, often confusing it with a goby. Rotan and goby have external resemblance, but distinguishing them is quite easy. Rotan has two dorsal fins. The front one is high, but not long. The rear one is approximately the same in height, but twice as long.

Colors vary. It depends on the habitat. If the reservoir is sandy with a light bottom, then rotan is light brown with dark, chaotically located spots. In a reservoir with a peat bottom it is darker.

The body is wide, dense, tapering significantly towards the tail. The length rarely exceeds 25 cm. The maximum recorded weight is 800 g.

The pectoral fins can also be different. In one rotan they are stubby and small. The other has wide, fluffy wings, like the wings of a butterfly. It is not possible to find out what this depends on.

Main hallmark Rotana is a head for which it received not only the nickname “little firebrand”, but also belongs to the species of firebrand. She's huge. May occupy a third of the entire body. The gill covers are large and extend far into the body. The mouth is wide, equipped with several rows of small, sharp teeth, set and replaced according to the principle of a shark. The eyes are large, providing the rotan with clear and long-range vision.

Habits

Even in the photo of the rotan fish it is clearly visible that it is a pronounced predator. Having hatched from the egg, it begins to feed on zooplankton and, as it grows, gradually switches to worms, insects, eggs of other types of fish and fry. It does not disdain its smaller relatives.

A description of the sleeper's habits can be summed up in two words - a voracious sloth. He does not like to chase potential prey, preferring to grab fish swimming in close proximity. If there are no suitable fry nearby, rotan will eat worms, bloodworms, insects and other living creatures.

Rotan's teeth are small, but very sharp.

Rotan spawns for a long time. The process can last from mid-May to the end of July. The female lays up to 1000 oblong eggs and instantly goes about her voracious business. A male remains near the clutch, changing its color to coal black. It protects the offspring until hatching. The hatched fry are forced to escape the teeth of their hungry father, but not everyone succeeds.

Habitat

Contrary to the prevailing opinion, which claims that due to its unique unpretentiousness, rotan can live in almost any body of water, the facts indicate the opposite. The firebrand can actually survive in a very small and polluted pond. This fish likes such places. But the flow ones, clean rivers and rotan does not visit lakes willingly. Its favorable existence in such reservoirs is hampered by the local predators living here - pike and pike perch, which are not averse to feasting on small rotan and do not allow it to breed. For this reason, river rotan is very rare.

In small ponds, where the bottom is densely covered with vegetation, the water begins to bloom at the end of June, and living creatures in the form of all kinds of worms, frogs and fry are quite accessible, rotan feels like the master of the situation.

A densely overgrown pond is the favorite habitat of rotan

These facts destroy another widespread myth. Many fishermen, having caught rotan in their favorite body of water, begin to panic that this voracious and rapidly reproducing predator will soon destroy all other fish. Observations prove the opposite. If other predators live in the lake or pond where the rotan appeared, they will not allow the firebrand to develop its population too widely. On the other hand, in reservoirs where peaceful fish predominate, the appearance of rotan will lead to a significant increase in the size of crucian carp, bream, roach and carp. In the absence of a predator, peaceful fish in such reservoirs are usually too numerous and do not grow to impressive sizes due to a lack of food for the entire population. Rotan, eating eggs and fry, thins out the population, thereby ensuring the availability and abundance of food for the remaining crucian carp and carp, which leads to their intensive growth.

In not a single reservoir where rotan appeared, not a single species of fish that lived there before has disappeared.

Fishing for rotan

Despite not being very attractive appearance, catching rotan is quite exciting. He bites greedily, aggressively, and is practically not afraid of what is happening on the shore or in the boat. You can get it with regular float tackle. The only condition is that the bait must be alive, fragrant and active. If a bite does not occur within 20-30 minutes, the worm, bloodworm or maggot should be replaced.

If planned sporty look For catch-and-release fishing, the angler must have an extractor with him. Rotan swallows the bait very deeply, and in most cases it is impossible to remove it from the hook without damaging the inside without this simple device.

When catching rotan with a spinning rod, all kinds of small silicone baits are most often used. The wiring can be any kind in any layer of water. Rotan can attack both at the very bottom and at the surface. The only difference is that at depth the wiring speed should be slower. A firebrand standing in thickets or under a snag does not like to chase bait over long distances. Near the surface, it is more active and pursues the prey much longer and more willingly.

As live bait

Rotan fish is interesting to fishermen not only as a trophy. Small and even medium-sized firebrands are excellent live bait. Several facts speak in his favor, in relation to other fry.

Easy to catch.
If rotan is present in a reservoir, it will not be difficult to obtain it even in winter.
Vitality. With one rotan it is quite possible to catch several pikes, pike perch or burbot. Even severely wounded by pike teeth or pike perch fangs, rotan does not lose activity and remains attractive to predators.

Versatility.

This means that any predator living in a body of water can be attracted to rotan.

Rotan is used as live bait when equipping girders, stands, donks and other types of gear intended for catching large predators.

Culinary features Like most predators, rotan lacks the small bones that bream, crucian carp and carp have. The spine and ribs are the entire bone structure of this fish, which can be removed without any problems.

Small rotan is fried with its head

One roast and cutlets culinary features This fish is not limited. Rotan is suitable for almost any type of cooking. Fish soup is cooked from it, producing a fairly fatty broth. Dumplings, dumplings and pies are made with rotan minced meat. A large firebrand pie is also very tasty. Boiled rotan meat can serve as the basis for fish salad or stuffed vegetables. Casseroles, omelettes, appetizers and even marinated fish are not excluded.

Cleaning rotan is easy. The scales are easily removed with a regular knife. The insides won't cause any extra trouble either. After removing them, it is recommended to rinse the carcass running water, cut off the fins and can be cooked in any chosen way. Be afraid of the taste of mud or something else unpleasant odor no need. Rotan, although it lives in rather muddy waters, has an active lifestyle and therefore the meat does not absorb foreign odors.

To prove that rotan can be cooked different ways, it’s worth giving three recipes.

Casserole

The name of the dish is “Rotan in scales”. In this case, the scales are potatoes cut into thin circles. Place half of the pre-fried potatoes in a baking dish. Then the fish carcasses fried in flour are placed in an even layer. On top is another layer of potatoes with onions and boiled eggs. Season everything with salt, pepper and sour cream. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 40 minutes.

Fish balls

Pre-boiled fish is passed through a meat grinder or crushed in any other way. The resulting minced meat is mixed with mashed potatoes in a 1:1 ratio. Add a raw egg butter, pepper, salt. Hand-shaped balls can be prepared in two ways. Roll in breadcrumbs and fry in a frying pan. Or stew in tomato sauce.

Rotan under marinade

Boiled fish is cleaned of bones and cut into small pieces. Place in an even layer on a plate. Coarsely grated carrots and finely chopped onions are fried, add 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste, one tablespoon of vinegar, a couple of spoons vegetable oil, salt, pepper and spices to taste. The resulting marinade is poured over the fish pieces. The dish is put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Served as a snack with strong drinks.

Main

A small, ugly-looking, but very picky and voracious rotan fish lives in overgrown reservoirs with a muddy or earthen bottom. It feels great in dense thickets and hunts everything that moves and matches its size.

The fear that rotan can destroy the entire population of other fish has no basis. In some bodies of water, on the contrary, it helps maintain the health of others. aquatic life. Thins out their population.

Catching rotan is a gambling activity, not difficult and rewarding. It does not require any special gear, but it must be taken into account that the firebrand swallows the bait deeply and when pulling the hook out of its mouth you need to be careful.

Rotan dishes are varied and can take their rightful place on any holiday table.

Rotan, with all its inconspicuousness and the accompanying secrets and myths, can bring real pleasure to fishermen during the frenzied bite and to real gourmets. His activity and gluttony are excitement on the pond. And properly cooked meat is an exquisite dish.

Rotans and crucian carp are not competitors in nutrition; some consume animal food, others - plant food. And the fact that rotans destroy some of the small crucian carp creates Better conditions in the pond for the rest. In lakes and ponds that are overpopulated, like the Lyubvinsky Pond, with fish of the same species, sleeper can perform the function of a “biological reclamation agent,” as an ichthyologist would say.

On that June day when I was fishing on Lyubvinsky Pond, all the other fishermen had a good catch of crucian carp. Almost all the crucian carp caught were obviously of the same age. I thought then that rotans eat up not such a significant part of the fry of one generation. Most remain unharmed and survive safely to the size when such small predator, like rotan, becomes fearless for them.

They say that rotans eat fish eggs, including valuable ones. I have doubts about this. After all, rotan is a predator and that is why it should not pay attention to motionless eggs; it seems to me that it is only interested in what moves - a fry, a worm, an insect larva. And the rotan’s mouth is so large that it is clear: by nature itself it is not intended for sucking up small eggs, but for capturing much larger ones. large production (moving). Numerous small but in rotan in order to hold this moving prey and prevent it from slipping out. Caviar is included in the diet of small bottom-dwelling fish that have a good sense of smell, for example, loach, loach, and gudgeon.

Rotan reaches quite a large number in ponds. It seems to me that this happens because the survival rate of eggs and the fish themselves is very high. The reason, obviously, is that in their habitats there is little left of the fish that feed on caviar and which were mentioned above (they are eaten in significant quantities by rotan), and also predators such as perch and pike, capable of destroying fry, usually do not live rotan and adult fish.

It must be assumed that rotan itself regulates the size of its population by eating its own young.

One more observation. Since the mass appearance of rotan in the pond, no loach has been caught on the bait. Obviously, rotans caused significant damage to it, and it became rare in the reservoir. It is more difficult for a small fish to escape from a rotan than for a crucian carp.

For the amateur fisherman, rotan is interesting in many respects. I will try to describe this fish in detail as much as possible and prove that fishermen needlessly neglect it.

I read that rotan reaches 300 grams of weight. To my joy, one day in a pond in the village of Lyubvino I managed to catch almost three hundred gram rotan.

Neither I nor the fishermen around me had not only caught such large rotans, but had never seen them. Regarding the size of rotan, there is information that 300 grams is far from the limit. Reader Olga Laiko

sent photos of rotan weighing 1 kilogram 300 grams. Moreover, when defrosting rotan stored in the freezer, it comes to life and even floats.

Rotan has a very large head, it is one third of the length of the entire body. The huge mouth, as I already said, is equipped with brushes of small but sharp teeth. It usually swallows the baited hook deeply, and to avoid damaging your hands when removing the hook, the angler should use an extractor. A rotan has two dorsal fins: the first is small, the second, located closer to the tail, is large. The caudal fin is rounded, like, for example, a loach and a loach.

Pelvic fins

Caught in the summer heat and falling asleep, rotan survives longer than, for example, silver crucian carp. In terms of its vitality and ability to live for a long time without water in cool times, it is not inferior to crucian carp, it tolerates a lack of oxygen in water well, and in small enclosed reservoirs it can endure a difficult winter, when fish such as pike, perch, and roach die. Therefore, I think that in such reservoirs, only rotan, and not, say, pike or perch, can regulate the number of, for example, crucian carp (so that they do not degenerate into a dwarf form) and play the role of an orderly. This is where I see the value of rotan. How many small lakes we have with dwarf crucian carp! If you introduce rotan into such lakes, then the crucian carp will gradually become larger in them, which will become a desired trophy for the fisherman.

Rotan bites greedily in any weather and almost at any time of the year. I only observed a weak bite at the end of June. For example, on June 23, 1985, in the pond in the village of Lyubvino, I caught only one small rotan, and crucian carp - about three kilograms. Other fishermen had the same picture. I don’t know what this was connected with. After that, I came to Lyubvino for fishing in August.

Rotans were caught very well. The solid, 150-250 gram crucian carp also bit well.

In September and October I went to Lyubvino several times, and always, in any weather, rotans were caught, and crucian carp - only in warm weather.

It is rare to find a body of water where crucian carp is caught in winter; in the Morshansky region we know only two ponds where silver crucian carp bite in winter. Rotan takes it everywhere in winter too.

I caught rotans only with a worm; I haven’t tried fishing with live bait or any other bait. The best bite was observed close to the shore, in the clearings between the thickets of cattails and reeds. Rotan also pecked far from the shore (on a donka with a rubber shock absorber), but worse.

His bite is phlegmatic: he slowly moves and lowers the float, very rarely slightly drags it to the side. This is how the rotan bite differs from the crucian carp: the crucian carp, having moved the float, as a rule, smoothly moves it to the side.

It seems to me that it’s time to part with the prejudice towards rotan. For an angler, fishing for rotan can be quite interesting. As for the presence of this predator in water bodies, a differentiated, strictly scientific approach is probably needed here.

A. Tsurikov

Morshansk In addition to the common species of inhabitants fish, such as salmon and carp, there are also those that fishermen without experience have practically never heard of and have no idea what kind of gear to use for them, for example, rotan fish. It was brought to us from the Far East, where the diversity of fauna amazes even the pros, and until recently it was not found in other regions at all. Now, many have become interested in what kind of rotan fish this is and what it is eaten with, as well as how to record another trophy for yourself and what distinctive features allow us to identify this species?

The previously mentioned arrival of rotan to us from the east explains the bewilderment of many newcomers when meeting it. After all, they had never encountered this species before, and the fish is considered a delicacy in its homeland and is very popular there as a trophy.

On this moment There are only a few versions of how such a specimen could have come to us:

According to one of them, fish used to be something of a “court animal” of the king, who eventually got tired of it and released rotan into the pond. And then it smoothly wedged itself into the food chain and today is completely entrenched in it, feeling quite comfortable in our climate.
According to another version, the fish was brought to us only during the times Soviet Union, but due to a sharp increase in the population, they decided to “float” the extra individuals, after which they multiplied for several decades and by today have become a fairly common catch. And thanks to birds and other animals, the eggs fell from one reservoir to another, spreading individuals throughout Russia and the CIS.

Initially, rotan was a predator, but it feeds mainly on small fish and plankton, because large sizes You shouldn't expect anything from a trophy. Sometimes manifestations of “cannibalism” occur among this species, but such natural selection occurs only under the condition complete absence food and most often in the cold season. The scales are small in size and dark in color, sometimes they can acquire a slightly grayish tint, casting green. The belly is painted in lighter shades, and the other distinctive feature The fish is left with a giant head with a bunch of small teeth in the mouth.

Because of this, some compare rotan with piranha, but, unlike it, this species is capable of gaining up to one kilogram of weight at good nutrition. Trophy individuals can also be found up to three kilograms.

At first, rotans lived only in Far Eastern reservoirs like the Amur and its tributaries, and also inhabited a small water spaces in Korea and northern China, so they were caught there even during imperial court and were considered a delicacy. The sudden insertion of a species into the food chain on Lake Baikal initially worried scientists, since it could disrupt the stability of the fauna and harm the biological state of water bodies, and also introduce a serious imbalance into the already established food chain. After all, any new predator takes food from those that already live in its habitat, thereby exterminating peaceful fish species that are not ready to defend themselves from new threat and starving other predators. The same destruction biological species and people were afraid in the early twentieth centuries.

It was at that time that it first began to appear in lakes near St. Petersburg, after which, according to one of the versions described above, it began to rapidly spread, like rabbits in Australia, throughout the country.

At the moment, rotan can be found in the Dniester and Danube, as well as in the Dnieper, but to this day it prefers:

standing water;
small bodies of water;
weak currents;
ponds and lakes.

IN Lately cases of fish being transferred to other rivers by fishermen themselves have begun to be recorded, which can become a serious biological threat to other species. Therefore, at the moment the government is thinking about lifting the ban on hunting rotans during spawning to reduce its population.

It was previously mentioned that rotans can reach 2 kilograms in weight; in addition, the length of the largest individuals is 25 centimeters, so the fish is considered a relatively small, but worthy catch because of its “exoticism” and caution. In sport fishing, larger specimens were also encountered, reaching 40 centimeters in length, which can be considered an exception to general rule. Also, on special farms, large rotans are grown for subsequent sale, and they can exceed the already agreed figures due to food and hormones in food. In general, sizes can vary greatly depending on where a particular individual lives.

If the reservoir is a real oasis and is filled with a large amount of nutrients along with small fish, which is attached to them, then the rotan manages to grow even stronger. Among such places there are often backwaters and small ponds in which there is already an established life cycle with a lot of small fish. Also, experienced fishermen know that crucian carp, like its land counterpart - the cockroach, is able to survive in a wide variety of conditions, even if other species lack oxygen, then crucian carp feel simply wonderful, only increasing the size of their population. They could become the most tenacious variety, but rotans can easily overtake them in this parameter.

Firebrands can really survive extreme conditions habitats in all kinds of lakes and rivers, and they can be found even in waters empty of other organisms.

So, they are often found in:

In a small pond, which can completely freeze in winter, destroying all remnants of life, but firebrands managed to adapt to this nuance. They fall into a kind of suspended animation, and with the arrival of the warm season they begin to gradually return to their usual activities and fully recover after several months of being in the ice. This is a phenomenon that has amazed even many scientists, and at the moment they are studying it in order to find out the reasons for such survivability.
IN freezers. Many fishermen like to prepare live bait in advance, but most species require almost all day poring over, turning them into your pets before fishing time comes. However, rotans are able to survive severe cold, quietly lie in the freezer for several weeks and even months, after which they thaw and behave no less actively than before the procedures. Therefore, rotan can be used in the most extreme conditions.

Firebrands, as mentioned earlier, feed on eggs and fry, but sometimes they can include plankton and the larvae of various insects in their diet, which professionals skillfully use when fishing.

They are also capable of eating small frogs and even leeches, and such a rich diet has made them a serious threat in the established food chain of our reservoirs. It was also previously mentioned that cannibalism in this species is present as a norm of survival, while often larger rotans calmly eat even their eggs and small relatives. To those who were able to reach gigantic size, is no stranger to delicacies in the form of adult representatives of its species.

After the firebrand manages to grab the “big jackpot”, it prefers to swim as deep as possible in order to calmly digest what it has eaten and not become prey for other fish. Most often, rotans hunt from ambush, which is worth considering when choosing a leash for it and fishing methods.

They prefer to spawn in May, and sometimes in April, and are engaged in protecting their offspring males, which often remain with the eggs until they hatch, so after spawning there is a high probability of catching the female individual. The fry's diet consists of plankton and other small animals, including vegetation.
Firebrands live up to 7 years, but average is no more than 5 and strongly depends on the conditions in the reservoir, as well as the amount of food in it. And even a well-established rotan in this the food chain There are serious enemies that are capable of committing real genocide of this species - these are perches.

Many ichthyologists even think that perches should be released into reservoirs intentionally when the firebrands begin to multiply too quickly, turning rivers and lakes into wastelands. In particular, perch can act as the missing link in the food chain that balances these predators. Naturally, other predators that hunt live bait such as pike are capable of reducing the population of rotans, but they live only in large rivers oh and rarely intersect with firebrands.

The fish is one of the most active and bites both at night and during the day, so it makes no difference what time of day you organize fishing. But as the sun sets, the bite becomes a little weaker, so the easiest way is to lower the bottom and wait for the morning. Rotan bites quickly and greedily swallowing the bait, practically hooking itself, but it is better to use an extractor - this will avoid many injuries, although you should not expect serious resistance from this predator.

But the main advantage of the firebrand is that it bites at any time of the year, regardless of the weather and conditions in the reservoir, which allows you to hunt it whenever you please and use it as live bait in any season.

However, experience is still necessary when catching this cunning fish, because it bites very weakly and the float barely goes under the water, which creates the illusion of the fry biting. Therefore, for the best catch, you should lower the bait to the very bottom and raise it 10 centimeters, then stop for 10 seconds. This method of playing with a predator will force it to emerge from ambush and attack the intended target, and if even in this way it is not possible to achieve a bite, then you should make a light retrieve and repeat all these actions again. Periodically remove the tackle completely to make sure that the fish has not yet swallowed it or that it has not been eaten by other fish and not by rotan.

A few decades ago, ratan fish could only be found in Russia in the Far East. Today, fishermen from all over Russia are sounding the alarm, because ratan has appeared in their native waters - a fish that devours everything around. These unpretentious inhabitants of the standing ones are unusually prolific, tolerate all the hardships of the Russian climate well and feed on the eggs of other inhabitants of ponds and lakes.

Ratan fish: description

The most major representatives have a length of 30 cm, minimum size adult- 14 cm. Externally, the ratan is an unremarkable fish. It has an elongated shape, reminiscent of a firebrand. The color is often changeable, the color of the scales becomes bright black, the rest of the time gray, brown and green tones predominate.

The body is dense, with subtle spots and stripes visible on the back irregular shape. The photo of which is presented below is distinguished by its huge mouth. It is for this disproportionately large mouth that representatives of Perccottus glenii were given the name ratan. Many small but sharp teeth help deal with prey.

Living conditions

The waters of the Amur were originally the homeland of these predators. In the 19th century, seemingly harmless fish began to be imported into central Russia, released into the rivers of St. Petersburg and other cities. And thanks to its incredible vitality, the ratan multiplied so much that it began to displace other fish from reservoirs. This is due to the fact that the basis of the diet was the eggs of valuable species of tadpoles, larvae, insects, and mollusks. The very presence of this trash fish in a reservoir suggests that other species are doomed to extinction. Damage is caused to the entire ichthyofauna.

It is very difficult to get rid of ratan, since this rat is very unpretentious to its living conditions. In order to survive the drought, the ratan is buried in muddy sediments, and with the onset of rains it continues its life activity as if nothing had happened. In frozen bodies of water, the predator overwinters well in the ice. In waters with poor food content, these fish practice cannibalism, eating their smaller relatives.

Scientists' opinions and economists' forecasts

Due to the fact that ratan is a fish that destroys ichthyofauna, its entry into large rivers and lakes is considered by scientists as pollution. It's not always people's fault. The eggs are often carried by migrating birds. A few eggs are enough for all living creatures in the pond to disappear within 4-5 years. Pike, perch and catfish can compete with firebrand fish. The annual damage from the decline in the number of valuable fish species is growing. Experts do not recommend placing a predator in a ratan fish tank; the fish will quickly get rid of competitors.

But for decorative mini ponds there is no best view. Many anglers note that ratan bites well, especially in winter. For bait, you can use any bait: worms, grasshoppers, meat. The taste of the fish is not bad, but it occupies your head most body, and the belly is often filled with shellfish and snail shells. For this reason, there is little interest in the fish, and most anglers note that the harm from ratan is much greater than the benefits.

There is domestic rotan, which lives in aquariums, and “wild” rotan, which is found in natural natural conditions. However, both of them differ in almost nothing: the same predatory character, penchant for animal food, desire for enclosed bodies of water and cannibalism.

Rotan fish: description

Rotan is an aggressive fish by nature, which is famous for its gluttony, therefore, in every new body of water where it finds itself, it constantly camouflages itself with the color of its surroundings: in terms of body color, rotan can be almost black, and slightly green, and yellow, and brown, and gray. Consequently, the color of rotan fish directly depends on the tone of the bottom and water. Once, for example, in a fish tank, literally in an hour and a half it turns into a light fish with faded shades.

This is ideal, but more standard sizes fish are 500 grams with a body length ranging from 20-25 centimeters. The head of rotan is very large, with gill covers located on the sides. Teeth – periodically renewed, sharp. Vision is excellent, thanks to which this fish can easily see everything underwater at a distance of up to 5 meters. Side line– developed, allowing excellent detection of potential prey. There is also a large number of glands that secrete mucus, which makes the body of rotan slippery and makes it easier to move in water layers.

Types of rotan

Rotan is included in the suborder Gobiidae, order of perciformes and in the firebrand family. In total, there are three types of rotan, but only one of them is found in Russian water bodies - firebrand, having a dark color and a large head, which makes up almost a third of its entire body. Paradoxically, people know very little about rotan, so a rotan that falls for the bait in the next region immediately receives a new “name,” of which it already has many. Thus, rotan is known the following types: wrasse, goby, grassweed, farrier, firebrand, blacksmith, throater, toad, round fish, crabbill, sandpiper, rooster, greenfowl, etc.

Rotan habitats

The homeland of rotan is the Far Eastern region. It was from there that it spread along rivers to other places, including border states. Original places rotan habitat – Far East(Russia), Amur basin, northern part North Korea and northeastern territories of China. Interestingly, the entry of fish into the Baikal basin (in the 20th century) was perceived by representatives of science as biological pollution. In the first half of the same century (in 1916), rotan was released into the reservoirs of St. Petersburg, from where a little later it penetrated into the northern part of Eurasia, spreading to most regions of Russia and Europe.

Today, rotan is found in the basins of many large rivers - such as the Irtysh, Danube, Dniester, Don, Dnieper, Volga. It is also found in various reservoirs with stagnant water, where no other species takes root. predatory fish. Resettlement usually occurs with the assistance of man himself, as well as during periods of large river floods and floods between floodplain water sources.

Habits of rotan

Since rotan is active predator, then his habits correspond. Usually, in reservoirs where rotan settles, it eats up all other representatives, including perch, roach and even crucian carp. Likes to stay in quiet and calm creeks, heavily overgrown with vegetation - oxbow lakes, quarries, shallow lakes, ponds. This feature its habits are very unfavorable for anglers, as it makes fishing much more difficult due to the abundance of underwater and surface flora. Rotan likes to stay in such places all year round and around the clock.

In addition, rotan has the ability to perfectly withstand the most severe weather and climatic conditions. For example, it survives extreme winter frosts and summer droughts by burying itself in a layer of silt, so it lives even in bodies of water that are prone to freezing almost to the very bottom. It reproduces without problems and lives in swampy and heavily grassy reservoirs due to its natural need for low oxygen content in aquatic environment and undemanding quality of water.

What does rotan eat?

Rotan is a predatory fish. Adult rotans eat amphibian larvae (tadpoles), newts, leeches, small fish, fry, and caviar. In addition, cases of cannibalism are very common among them, when rotan eats representatives of its own genus and family. Even in captivity (in aquariums and artificial ponds) it eats its brothers by color. Moreover, the attacker is almost no different from the victim - neither size nor weight.

In small bodies of water, rotan can completely destroy all other species of fish. To get food for themselves, rotans can form into flocks, conducting real hunting. Collectively attacking a flock of some other inhabitants underwater world, they organize genuine pogroms, surrounding and absorbing the panicked little fish one after another, constantly attacking them. Having filled their stomachs to capacity, rotans go to the bottom and digest food for several days.

Possessing a wide, powerful mouth and a forward jaw, rotans easily swallow five- and six-centimeter individuals with the same body thickness. The swallowing of large prey occurs gradually, without interfering with the natural rhythmic movement of the gill covers. There is also no discomfort with breathing.

In addition to the “food” moving freely in the water, rotan extracts various larvae from the soil thickness, and insects from the surface of the water surface. When guarding food in the ground, it positions itself upside down and captures it along with the silt. It prefers to eat for future use, so when there is no shortage of food, the diameter of the rotan after fattening can triple: the belly swells so much that the fish is forced to sink to the bottom in order to digest the food.

Digestion can take two days. During this period, rotan does not swim (almost at all). Due to their omnivorous nature and special feeding habits, the population of rotans remains at the same level even in closed reservoirs - due to the consumption of larger individuals by smaller ones. This is such a greedy nature!

Spawning rotan

Rotan becomes sexually mature by the age of two or three years. Amur sleeper spawns late, when all other fish species have already spawned and leave the places where eggs are released.. In May-July (depending on climate region) rotan caviar appears - greenish, sticky and oblong in shape. The fish deposits it in portions and throws it on aquatic plants. Fertility is about 1000 eggs. The clutch is usually guarded by the male, who acquires a bright black color during the spawning period. The fry appeared on initial stage feed on zooplankton and then move on to benthos and small invertebrates.