Schraetser

Description

The schraetser is a slender, perch-like bottom fish of the family Percidae reaching about 30 cm. The yellow-brown body bears three to four dark, narrow lengthwise stripes and has a continuous, spiny dorsal fin; the mouth is slightly inferior. The species is related to the ruffe and adapted to fast-flowing water: it lives on gravel and sand bottoms in the fresh water of the Danube drainage in central and eastern Europe. Mainly at night it searches the bottom for insect larvae, small crustaceans, worms and fish eggs. In spring it spawns on gravel, where the eggs stick to stones. Through river works and habitat loss it has declined locally, though globally it is assessed as Least Concern.