Bleak (redirected from Bleak (fish))

bleak

any slender silvery European cyprinid fish of the genus Alburnus, esp A. lucidus, occurring in slow-flowing rivers

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Bleak 

(Alburnus alburnus), a freshwater school fish of the family Cyprinidae. The bleak may measure up to 20 cm in length and weigh as much as 60 g. The mouth is directed forward; the scales fall off easily. Distributed in river basins of Western Europe and the European part of the USSR, the fish lives in slow-moving rivers and is numerous in reservoirs. It spawns intermittently from May through July each year after attaining sexual maturity at the age of three years. The female produces 3,000–10,500 eggs, which it deposits on plants. The bleak feeds on plankton and algae. It serves as food for a number of predatory fishes and is fished commercially.

REFERENCES

Nikol’skii, G. V. Chastnaia ikhtiologiia, 3rd ed. Moscow, 1971.
Ryby SSSR. Moscow, 1969.