''Eudontomyzon danfordi'', the Carpathian brook lamprey or Danube lamprey, is a
species of
lamprey in the family
Petromyzontidae. It is found in
Austria,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria,
Croatia,
Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Moldova,
Romania,
Serbia,
Montenegro,
Slovakia, and
Ukraine. Unlike other brook lampreys, this fish is
parasitic.
Description
The Carpathian brook lamprey grows to a maximum length of . It is a long eel-like fish and its girth is greatest in the middle. It is a uniform silvery-olive colour. It has no jaws and the mouth is surrounded by an oral plate with many small blunt teeth. There are cartilaginous plates inside the mouth and the central, lingual plate has nine to thirteen teeth, a fact that distinguishes it from other lamprey species. The single nostril is between the eyes and seven naked gill pores are behind them. The only fins are two dorsal fins that run most of the way along the spine, and a small diamond-shaped tail fin.
Distribution
The Carpathian brook lamprey is found in the
Danube river basin, particularly in its tributaries the
Tisza and the
Timiș. It is a non-migratory, entirely freshwater species.
Biology
Reproduction usually takes place in the winter and march in small brooks and streams. The adults afterwards die. The larvae are called
ammocoetes and at first develop among the sand and gravel on the bed of the stream. They feed on
detritus
In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...
, insect larvae and small
crustaceans that they filter out of the sediment. They undergo
metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
when about four years old. As adults, they feed on living fish or dead sharks, gripping them with their small rasping teeth and swallowing smaller food items whole.
Status
The Carpathian brook lamprey is listed as being of "
Endangered" in the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...
. Although pollution is threatening their spawning sites and their numbers seem to be declining, this is not happening at a sufficiently rapid rate for them to be included in a higher risk category.
References
{{Authority control
danfordi
Fish described in 1911
Freshwater fish of Europe
Fish of Europe
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot