Common percarina (''Percarina demidoffii'') is a species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family

Percidae The Percidae are a family of ray-finned fish, part of the order Perciformes, which are found in fresh and brackish waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The majority are Nearctic, but there are also Palearctic species. The family contains nearly 250 ...

. It is found in northwestern

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

basin in estuaries and coastal lakes, and in the lower reaches of the rivers that drain into that part of the Black Sea. It is a carnivorous species.

Description

The common percarina is distinguished from its congener '' P. maeotica'' by having no scales on its cheek, by having nearly transparent membranes on the body and fins, the upper body is milky white in colour with no spots. It also has 8–9 round or irregular markings on the base of both

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

s. The dorsal fins are clearly separate in both species of ''

Percarina ''Percarina'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Percidae found in eastern Europe. They are characterised by having the first dorsal fin, having 9–11 spines and being widely separated from the second dorsal fin. Previously, they were ...

'' and in this species the first dorsal fin contains 9–10 spines while the second dorsal fin contains 3 spines and 10–12 soft rays. The

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

has 2 spines and 8–11 soft rays. this species has a maximum published

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

of .

Distribution

The common percarina is found in eastern Europe in the northwestern Black Sea where it occurs in estuaries and coastal lagoons and in the lower reaches of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

Southern Bug The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh (; ; ; or just ), and sometimes Boh River (; ),

and

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

. The 2016 discovery of the common percarina in the Zaporizske Reservoir in Ukraine advances its known distribution upstream on the Dnieper River and extends its current range. It also shows that this species is able to adapt to a fully freshwater environment. The common percarina has been recorded from Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.

Habitat and biology

The common percarina is considered to be a freshwater species which can easily adapt to brackish or saline environments. It is a schooling species which is both demeral and pelagic being normally found near the bottom but can also been found in the water column. It is commonest at depths of around where the substrate is made up of black mud. It has been recorded in mixed shoals with the

Black Sea sprat The Black Sea sprat or Pontic sprat, ''Clupeonella cultriventris'', is a small fish of the herring family, Clupeidae. It is found in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov and rivers of its basins: Danube, Dnister, Dnipro (Ukraine), Southern Bug, Don, K ...

(''Clupeonella cultriventris''). It is a predatory species and its diet includes the eggs of fishes, juvenile fishes of species such as sprats,

silverside Silverside may refer to: * Silverside (beef), a cut of beef * Silverside (fish), the Atheriniformes, an order of fish * Agnes Silverside (died 1557), one of the Colchester Martyrs * USS ''Silversides'', the name of 2 U.S. Navy submarines * Silvers ...

s and

gobies Gobiidae or gobies is a family of bony fish in the order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typically less than in length, and the fam ...

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

, small

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine Annelid, annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called c ...

worms and insect larvae. They have been known to eat

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater Aquatic ecosystem, ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek language, Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), mea ...

too. It spawns in coastal waters around the mouths of rivers where there is a muddy bottom and this takes place in May and June.

Taxonomy

The common percarina was first formally described in 1840 by the Finnish

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Alexander von Nordmann (1803–1866) with the type locality given as the Dniester river, in the vicinity of the town of "

Akkerman Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (, ; ; ), historically known as Aq Kirmān () or by other names, is a port city in Odesa Oblast, southwestern Ukraine. It is situated on the right bank of the Dniester Estuary leading to the Black Sea, in the historical r ...

". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honours Anatole de Demidoff (1813–1817).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q906941 Percarina Fish of Europe Fish of the Black Sea Fish described in 1840 Taxa named by Alexander von Nordmann Taxonomy articles created by Polbot