''Alburnus leobergi'', the Azov shemaya, is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the genus ''

Alburnus ''Alburnus'' is a genus of fish in the family Leuciscidae, the daces and minnows. They are known commonly as bleaks. A group of species in the genus is known as shemayas. The genus occurs in the western Palearctic realm, and the center of diversi ...

''; it is widespread in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

in the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

basin. A landlocked population exists in

Tsimlyansk Reservoir Tsimlyansk Reservoir or Tsimlyanskoye Reservoir () is an artificial lake on the Don River in the territories of Rostov and Volgograd Oblasts at . Completed in 1952, the reservoir is one of the largest in Russia, providing power () and irrigation ...

( Don drainage). It is a benthopelagic fish, up to 40.3 cm long. Landlocked adult populations breed in reservoir tributaries and return to sea after spawning. Populations declined in early and middle 20th century due to the construction of dams. Remaining populations continue to spaw below these dams.

References

leobergi Fish described in 2007 Taxa named by Jörg Freyhof Taxa named by Maurice Kottelat Freshwater fish of Europe Fish of Russia {{Leuciscinae-stub