Pearl goldfish (carassius auratus). Goldfish Pearl (Carassius auratus auratus) Feeding Goldfish Pearl

Sometimes on Russian shelves you can see an unusual product called pearl fish. What it is and what it is eaten with, the sellers do not explain. But in vain: sometimes completely different inhabitants of the sea are called so, some of which are not even subject to consumption.

Characteristics of pearl fish

As a rule, pearl fish are called from the family carapace, which are related to lechepery.

The history of the name of this group of living organisms is quite fascinating. One day, one of the pearl divers discovered a translucent snake-like creature inside the shells of an oyster. The fish managed to turn into mother-of-pearl during its stay in the "house", which gave the false impression that it itself has a pearl color.

Fish differ in microscopic size and strongly elongated translucent bodies. Scales do not have. The rays of the dorsal fin are shorter than the rays of the anal fin.

In 1977, a New Zealand biologist recorded about 15 species of these fish, most of which lived in the body of a sea cucumber.

Where is pearl fish found?

Carapaces live in the tropical waters of such oceans:

Atlantic;
Indian;
Quiet.

The depth of habitat is quite high and can reach a couple of kilometers. A typical dwelling is located in the region of ocean slopes and a gently sloping bottom.

Due to their tiny size and the almost complete lack of means of repelling aggression, these fish are forced to spend a significant part of their lives inside other organisms more.

And only with the onset of darkness does their time come, and they swim out of the body of the owner in order to feed.

This fish is practically unsuitable for food due to its tiny mass and lack of any useful substances. However, it is possible that there is a risk of eating it by mistake along with the organism in which it lives.

Bleak: what is this fish?

Associations with pearls among fishermen are caused by another fish, which is called bleak. Its coloration is very interesting: on top the scales are dark with a dark green tint, but the sides have an almost steel sheen. In length, it reaches 1/5 meter, weight is more than 100 g.

The bleak lives in water bodies of the temperate zone. In Russia, it is caught on the banks of such reservoirs:

Sea of Azov;
Baltic Sea;
Black Sea;
Also found in lakes and rivers, especially where the latter enter the sea.

Fish live in flocks in the upper layers of the reservoir, where they eat plankton, as well as dead insects floating on the water.

This fish is called pearl for the characteristics of its scales. For a century now, there has been a technology for making man-made pearls from the outer bone cover of bleaks. That is why the catch of this species is carried out on a real industrial scale around the world.

In addition, this fish finds its application in cooking.

Pearl sea fish: how to cook

The most delicious bleak dish is sprats. However, the cooking process is quite laborious and requires a lot of patience.

We list the main steps in preparing the dish:

Catch or buy a few kilograms (up to five) of fish.
Place the entire catch in one large container and gut each specimen of the fish. The surface layer comes off very easily, you can do everything only with your hands without the use of sharp objects. After carrying out the procedures, the carcasses should be thoroughly washed.
The entire volume of fish must be salted with an amount of salt 10 times less than the weight of the fish itself. After that, keep the dish in a cold place for 24 hours. During this time, the carcasses will release juice and acquire considerable elasticity.
Take a large saucepan and spread the bleak layer by layer. Sprinkle each layer generously with spices - pepper, bay leaf, cloves.
This whole "pie" is filled with sunflower oil to the very brim - so that it covers all the fish.
Put on languishing in the oven.
Then put the finished dish in glass jars, which in the refrigerator can wait until winter.

Kutum: long-lived fish

The silver-pearl shade of the scales has another inhabitant of the deep sea named carp or kutum. Most often it can be found in the south of the European part of Russia. Its life span is extremely long - more than ten years, which is rare for fish.

Adults grow up to half a meter long and weigh more than five kilograms. Its important feature is that it can live not only in salty, but also in fresh water, which makes it extremely tenacious. As a rule, marine individuals swim up to the mouths of rivers during spawning.

The teeth of representatives of this group of organisms are very developed. This allows the fish to feast on a variety of inhabitants of the sea and rivers:

Soft-bodied;
Arthropods;
invertebrates;
Worms;
Insects.

As soon as an individual is five years old and it reaches a mass of a couple of kilograms, it begins to multiply. However, the reproduction of this species is far behind the scale of its extermination. Uncontrolled fishing by Russian fishermen has led to the fact that kutum is endangered. The species has already been listed in the Red Book, but this does not help him much at the moment.

Almost any inhabitant of the deep sea, which has a mother-of-pearl hue, can earn the name "pearl fish". What it is, it is impossible to answer unambiguously. Depending on the context, they may mean kutum, bleak or carapace. The latter most often bear such a proud nickname: for example, in the world they are called like that - pearlfish.

Video: how pearl fish hides

This video will show how a sea pearl fish hides in another, no less bizarre inhabitant of the sea - a sea cucumber:

Pearl Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) differs in non-standard appearance and not without reason is loved by many aquarists. The pearl has a spherical or egg-shaped shape, a flowing tail and very beautiful scales. It is because of the large scales that the pearl got its name. They are convex and have a pearly sheen.

Regardless of what color the fish itself is, the scales are several tones lighter, so the pearl seems to be very voluminous. The body of the fish is short, with small fins, sometimes representatives of this species can seem very awkward. From the inside, the fish seems to shine, grows up to 10-15 centimeters, but there are specimens even more than 20 centimeters. Traditionally, the color of fish is red, orange or white, blue, chocolate and combined varieties are less common.

photo: Golden fish pearl grows up to 10-15 cm.

Keeping and breeding goldfish pearls

Pearls are very sensitive to lack of oxygen, so you need to choose a long, spacious aquarium equipped with a filter and aerator. For one fish you need an area of 10-15 liters. The neighbors of a goldfish can be friendly and calm individuals, since the pearl is spherical and of considerable size and moves more slowly, so it can be left without food. Once a week, you need to change a third or a quarter of the water, the temperature can vary from 18 to 22 degrees. As a soil, choose coarse sand or gravel; you can also keep snails in an aquarium. The algae should be well rooted and the pH in the tank should be between 6.0 and 8.0. You can feed the fish dry, fresh or frozen food.

photo: Golden fish pearl (orange)

You can breed pearls in a spawning tank with a volume of 20-30 liters, small-leaved plants and sandy soil are placed in it. A female and two males are planted, before that they are kept separately and well fed. Stimulation for spawning is an increase in temperature from 24 degrees and above. The female throws eggs, the males fertilize them, after which the producers are planted from the spawning ground and wait for the fry to hatch. You can feed them with special feeds, brine shrimp nauplis, ciliates, rotifers.

Interesting facts about goldfish - pearls:

Since pearls are an artificially bred breed, they may have problems with immunity, most often fish suffer from digestive diseases;
If a fish damages its mother-of-pearl scales, then an ordinary one grows instead of it and the pearl seems to be peeled off;
The pearl was bred by breeders from China, appeared in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, it was called the "golf ball" because of its unusual shape.

The basis for the trouble-free existence of pearls in the aquarium is a properly conducted quarantine and appropriate conditions. After purchasing these fish, you must keep them in "active" quarantine for up to 60 days.

Water parameters

Water: fresh
Water temperature: 15-24°C
Acidity Ph: 6-8
Water hardness °dH: 8-25°

Water should be constantly fresh and clean, no ammonia, nitrites and an excess of nitrates. Pearls are very sensitive to water quality.

Goldfish love to dig in the ground, so powerful filtration is needed to keep the water clean in the aquarium. The filter is better to use biological.

Good aeration is also required. If the fish swim with their mouths up to the surface, trying to take in air, this means that the water is not oxygenated enough. Then you should increase the purge or change part of the water to fresh.

Aquarium device

The size and arrangement of the aquarium: from 100 liters per couple (no less!). The aquarium is desirable species and spacious.
Lighting: natural, closer to bright. Without sufficient lighting, the color of goldfish fades.
Aquarium setup: These fish like to dig in the ground, so it is better to use small rounded pebbles as it.
Plants: Plants are essential for keeping a goldfish. It is better to plant plants with a strong root system and hard leaves in the aquarium, because. goldfish can damage delicate plants.

Behavior and lifestyle of goldfish Zhemchuzhinka

Aggressiveness: peaceful
Behavior: calm, slow swimming fish
Compatibility: Goldfish are very slow and in the general aquarium may not be able to keep up with food, which often leads to exhaustion. Because of this, it is better to keep Pearls separately, in a species aquarium, although they can be kept with calm fish, as well as with other goldfish.
Daily activity: daytime
Sociality: single
Layers of water: all layers of water

Feeding the goldfish Zhemchuzhinka

Diet: omnivores

Feeding must be varied, with a predominance of plant foods. It is better to feed two or even three times a day. For adult fish, in comparison with juveniles, the portion is reduced.

Peculiarities: Pearls, like all goldfish, are extremely voracious, so food must be strictly dosed to prevent overeating. “It is better to underfeed than overfeed” - due to the special tendency of the Pearls to disease, in an aquarium with these fish this rule must be observed in the first place.

In our article we want to talk about a small brilliant inhabitant of salty warm waters. It is called pearl fish, or carapace.

Pearl fish from the carp family

This is a small, very thin and translucent individual. That's why it's called pearl fish. Where is such a small creature found? Oddly enough, but neither underwater rocks nor sand attract her. She prefers to settle inside invertebrates, for example, in molluscs, oysters,

A pearl fish without scales, small and nimble, it skillfully uses its modest size. It belongs to the carp family, which has thirty-one varieties. They live all over the world, including in tropical waters. Pearl oysters are fish of the Atlantic Ocean.

habitats

I must say that almost all types of carapaces live in the cavities of other living organisms. And such a beautiful name - pearl fish - she received after one of the representatives of this family was found dead inside an oyster. At the same time, it was as mother-of-pearl as the inner surfaces of the shell of the host mollusk.

Carapaces consider the bodies of other sea creatures to be a completely safe habitat. For them, it is much more acceptable and safer than living somewhere else. After all, in this way they hide their delicate and delicate bodies without scales, thereby protecting themselves from daytime predators. But at night they swim out in order to find food for themselves.

Especially carapaces like to live inside (holothurians). Sometimes they even manage to settle in pairs in one mollusk. These are the fish of the Atlantic Ocean.

Carp

There is another fish from the carp family, which is called pearl. This is carp, which is found in the basins of the Caspian, Black and Marmara seas. Sometimes this fish is called the Black Sea roach. She has a lot of small scales, which is why she has a silver-pearl color. Therefore, in the English-speaking world it is called nothing more than pearl fish. The carp lives long enough, about twelve years. In adulthood, it reaches sixty or more centimeters and weighs up to seven kilograms. However, in the catch, fishermen rarely come across specimens weighing more than two.

The largest amount of such a substance, as it turned out, is contained in bleak scales. I must say that this type of fish lives in large numbers in all southern reservoirs, and this makes industrial fishing very convenient. A century ago, bleak was an industrial fish.

Now chemical compositions are used for the production of jewelry, but bleak has remained in high esteem among anglers.

Pearl fish dishes

Fish connoisseurs appreciate bleak very much. Dried, it is almost transparent. It is also put in for fat to other species. The most delicious bleak dish is homemade sprats. Fishermen claim that the taste of such fish is simply indescribable. It does not go to any comparison with canned food.

Preparing this dish is quite simple. To do this, you need three to four kilograms of fish. At first, it is salted a little (300 grams of salt per five kilograms of fish) and put in the refrigerator for a day. During this time, the fish will give up unnecessary liquid. Then it is placed in a large bowl in layers, each of which is sprinkled with spices (bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, allspice). Then this pan is filled to the top with any vegetable oil. All this is put in the oven or on the stove and languishes over low heat until cooked. When chilled, sprats are rolled into ordinary glass jars, which are stored exclusively in the refrigerator.

These interesting pearl fish exist in nature. They are all different, but got the same nicknames for their appearance.

Goldfish - Pearl - one of the artificially cultivated decorative breeds of the aquarium "goldfish" (lat. Carassius auratus

auratus) characterized by an unusual shape of scales resembling pearls.

Appearance:

Short, swollen, 15 cm egg-shaped body - dense, like a veiltail. All fins are short. On the body are separate, large and convex scales, similar to cut in half and glued pearls. In case of careless loss during any damage to the mother-of-pearl scale, a new one grows in an ordinary form and does not repeat its original originality.

Colour: Body color predominantly orange, red and white. There are options for a blurry-spotted color of fish with a yellow and other, dark combination.

Variations: Lately there are black and calico individuals.

Calm in nature, peaceful Pearls get along well with the same calm neighbors. You need to keep goldfish - pearls in an aquarium with a volume of at least 50 liters per one fish, it is better if it is an aquarium of at least 100 liters, in which a couple of fish will be placed.
With an increase in the size of the aquarium, the population density can be slightly increased, so 3-4 fish can be placed in a 150-liter aquarium, and 5-6 in a 200-liter aquarium, etc. But with an increase in population density, attention should be paid to good aeration of the water. These aquarium fish love to dig in the ground, so it is better to use pebbles or coarse sand as it, then it will not be so easy for the fish to scatter it.
The aquarium itself is desirable species and spacious, in which you need to place large-leaved aquarium plants. However, pearls quickly spoil delicate plants, or the surface of the leaves is polluted by sedimentation of particles of garbage suspended in water. To avoid this, plant plants with a strong root system and hard leaves in the aquarium.
Plants such as egg capsule, vallisneria, sagittaria, or elodea, as the most hardy, are very suitable. Goldfish - pearls are kept in the same aquarium along with calm species of aquarium fish. The aquarium needs natural light and good filtration. All varieties of goldfish prefer good aeration.
Part of the water in the aquarium should be changed regularly. In general, the pearl is not very demanding in terms of content. However, there are a number of points that beginners may not be able to cope with when keeping this delicate fish. The pearl is prone to gill rot and intestinal diseases. Ammonia and nitrites must not be present in the aquarium water.

Breeding:

For spawning, fish of developed fish are selected after the age of 2 years. In March-April, when daylight hours begin to noticeably lengthen, young males begin to swim after females, holding on to their ovipositor. By this sign, you can accurately identify mature and ready-to-spawn fish.
A male ready for spawning not only changes his behavior, he becomes quite active, but his color and appearance also change: a saw on the first ray of the front pair of pectoral fins in the form of a series of notches and warts appear on the gill covers, usually the size of a grain of semolina. The female has a thick, caviar-filled belly. Reproduction is not difficult.

It is easiest to breed in the spring when the water temperature reaches 23°C or slightly higher. A couple of weeks before planting in the spawning ground, males and females are separated and fed abundantly. Before landing, in the spawning ground, they arrange a hungry day. The stimulus for spawning is fresh, softer water, and an increase in the water temperature in the spawning area by 3 - 5 degrees than in the general aquarium.

For planting, you need a spawning vessel from 50 liters. A protective net is placed in the spawning ground, and several plants are placed. Approximately 2 - 3 males per female are planted for spawning. Fertility is from 2000 eggs, but its number depends on the development of the female, age and conditions of detention. The incubation period lasts 3-4 days, the larvae turn into fry and swim after 2-5 days at a temperature of 20-26°C.

A newly hatched fry is very weak and helpless. It looks like a string with two eyes at one end and a gallbladder in the middle. They should be fed with “living dust”. Juveniles develop rapidly, but unevenly. At the age of one month, non-standard fry should be discarded. As the fry grow, they must be sorted by size to prevent cannibalism. The fry of these fish already at the age of 1 - 2 months take on a rounded shape characteristic of adult fish and are very funny.

Water parameters:

Hardness from 8 - 25°dGH, pH 6.0-8.0, water temperature 20-23°C.

Food:

In food, pearls are unpretentious, they eat everything and a lot. Their diet should contain both live and plant foods. Despite the voracity of goldfish, they should not be overfed.
The amount of food they consume daily should be approximately 3% of the weight of the fish. Adult fish should be fed twice a day - the first time early in the morning, and the second - in the evening.
The amount of food is calculated for 10-20 minutes of feeding, then the remains of uneaten food are removed from the aquarium. Adult fish that receive proper nutrition can endure a long week-long fast without harm to their health.