Gymnocephalus cernuus
FAMILY
Percidae
TAXONOMY
Gymnocephalus cernuus Linnaeus, 1758, European lakes. No
subspecies are recognized.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Pope; French: Frash, grйmille; German: Kaulbarsch,
Pfaffenlaus; Spanish: Acerina.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Maximum total length 9.8 in (25 cm). Small, dark-spotted,
brownish fish with 15 to 19 long dorsal spines. Dorsal fins are
fused.
DISTRIBUTION
France to eastern Siberia. Accidentally introduced to Lakes Superior
and Michigan in the United States.
HABITAT
Prefers deep waters of lakes and ponds, but also found in
streams.
BEHAVIOR
Releases alarm pheromones that alert conspecifics to danger.
Adults have particularly well-developed neuromasts, sensory
organs that can detect even slight vibrations in the water and
thus allow the fishes to hunt for food in the cover of darkness.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Nocturnal feeders of shallow-water zooplankton.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Spawns in shallow water, where strands of sticky, whitish
yellow, demersal eggs adhere to weeds and/or rocks along the
bottom. No parental care for eggs or young, which hatch in
5–12 days. They attain sexual maturity in two to three years at
4.3–4.7 in (11–12 cm) in length. In warmer areas, sometimes
become sexually mature in just one year.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Sport and minor food fishes. Considered an undesirable, invasive
species in the Great Lakes, where it likely arrived via ballast
water from Eurasian ships.
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