Lamprey River belongs to a class of cyclostomes Fish ( Cyclostomata ), subclass lamprey ( Petromyzones ).It lives in the rivers.In Russia, it has a commercial value.
It has an elongated, snake-like body is about 40 cm long, covered with mucous bare skin.Color it dark gray with a metallic sheen.Mouth is in prisasyvatelnoy funnel, the edges of which are located in the language of your teeth.Jaws not.On top of the head has unpaired nasal opening.Her eyes three, two of which are normally developed, and the third perceives only light due to the absence of the lens.
Breathing is provided by seven pairs of gill bags on the sides of the body and outward opening.The skeleton consists of cartilage.Swim, bending the body, almost like a snake.Two dorsal fins (rarely one), caudal fin ravnolopastny, all supported by cartilaginous rays.Paired fins has no river lamprey.Photo shows its good.
Lamprey River is divided into the bushing (inhabiting the coastal areas of desalinated sea and spawn in rivers) and one door (living in rivers).
Lamprey River - a kind of predator and parasite.It feeds by sucking water to the inhabitants tend to fish, pulling them out of flesh and blood.She gluttonous, one suction cup, which can last for many days, is able to pull the victim out of a lot of its weight.Many fish after such a "dialogue" die of wounds because their blood gets a substance that prevents clotting.
A year before spawning lamprey river ceases to eat.Her body is undergoing significant changes: degrades intestine, salivary gland die, dorsal fins are merged into one, the female appears the anal fin and formed eggs, and males - sex papilla and milk.Length and weight in both sexes decreases.
Propagated river lamprey in the sections of the river with a swift current and pebble bottom, at depth.During spawning, the male builds a nest by digging holes in the bottom.The female all this time floating over it, touching the belly of his head, as if cheering.In the end it just a little hole deepens.When completed, the female attaches itself to a rock near the nest, and the male clings to it, gradually displacing the suction cup to the side of the head, tail and encircles it.Products of the reproductive glands are thrown simultaneously.After spawning, the pair is hidden among the rocks and soon dies.
from the eggs, which is more than 20,000, in 2 weeks the larvae emerge, called peskoroykami.They look like small worms yellowish color.About 4 days they are hiding between the rocks on the river bottom, and reached 6 mm in length, buried in silt.Days 15 larvae leave his hiding place and go with the flow, lingering there, where they can burrow into the mud and eat the remains of algae.The larval stage lasts for about 5 years.After metamorphosis occurs adult stage, during which the river lamprey parasite on other river inhabitants.
This Cyclostomata fish negatively reacts to light.This built its fishing.Fishermen lowered on both sides of the river strong lights so that the middle was a dark passage, and it set a trap into which the catch and falls.
During this period, the river lamprey has excellent taste.And when you consider that the bones, bile and intestines it does not, then this is the perfect product that can be eaten whole.Before cooking it is cleaned of mucus and fried in pans, sometimes pickled.
