Description
Western carp gudgeon are small fish, with a maximum size of approximately 6 cm. Usually their body is a yellowy-gold colour overlaid with subtle dark grey blotches, with semi-translucent fins. Males develop spectacular spawning colours in summer, namely a more metallic-bronze body colour with a red stripe through the caudal (tail), anal and spiny and soft dorsal fins. The red stripe through the anal and spiny and soft dorsal fins are topped with a tiny iridescent blue-white stripe. These red and iridescent blue-white stripes are somewhat subtle on most of the fins but are prominent and eye-catching on the spiny dorsal fin.
Western carp gudgeons spawn in summer, attaching eggs to aquatic weed in the shallows. There is some suggestion that they have suffered from small variations in river level caused by river regulation, which expose and destroy eggs laid in shallows. There is also some suggestion that they are/were a critical food item for juvenile Murray cod. It is likely they are an important forage fish for larger fish species in many waterways. Western carp gudgeons have taken to lower altitude man-made lakes and impoundments in the Murray-Darling system well, and are very common in some.
Read more about this topic: Western Carp Gudgeon
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)