The Caspian roach (''Rutilus caspicus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of brackish water

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 ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Leuciscidae Leuciscidae is a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes, formerly classified as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae, which contains the true minnows. Members of the Old World (OW) clade of minnows within this subfamily are known as European minnow ...

, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This fish is found in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

, commonly known as vobla. The Caspian roach can be distinguished from other roaches by its laterally compressed body, silvery grey iris, rounded snout and grey pectoral pelvic and anal fins with dark margins. The Caspian roach is semi-

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...

and inhabits mostly shallow coastal waters. It enters

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

, Ural, Emba, Terek and Kura drainages for

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

. Vobla is popular as a dried-fish snack. Newer research however suggests that ''R. caspicus'' is part of a more widely distributed species or roach, whose range extends to Siberia. The proper name of that species is ''

Rutilus lacustris ''Rutilus lacustris'', the Pontic loach or Aral roach, is a species of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the family (biology), family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species oc ...

''.Levin, B.A., Simonov, E.P., Ermakov, O.A., Levina, M.A., Interesova, E.A., Kovalchuk, O.M., Malinina, Y.A., Mamilov, N.S., Mustafayev, N.J., Pilin, D.V., Pozdeev, I.V., Prostakov, N.I., Roubenyan, H.R., Titov, S.V. & Vekhov, D.A. (2017)
Phylogeny and phylogeography of the roaches, genus ''Rutilus'' (Cyprinidae), at the Eastern part of its range as inferred from mtDNA analysis.
''Hydrobiologia'', 788: 33–46. In particular another popular as a dried-fish snack, ''taran'' (''

Rutilus heckelii ''Rutilus heckelii'' is a species of freshwater and brackish water ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species occurs in freshened areas of Black and Azov Seas, e ...

'') is thought to differ from ''vobla'' only as a result of different habitat.

Description

The Caspian roach has a typical size of (maximum published ) and a weight of (maximum published ). It can be distinguished from its congeners in the Caspian Sea by these characteristics: * usually 42–44 scales along the lateral line * dorsal fin usually with 9½ branched rays * anal fin usually with 10½ branched rays * rounded snout and subterminal mouth * anal fins and pectoral pelvic are grey with dark margins

Distribution

The vobla is found in brackish coastal waters of the northern and northwestern Caspian Sea, and enters

, Ural, Emba, Terek, and Kura drainages for spawning. There it is locally known as ''vobla''.

As food

Salt-dried ''vobla'' is generally eaten without

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

s or

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.

In popular culture

In 2022, during a protest against the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

one young woman was charged with "discreditation of the Russian Army" because she wrote "Нет в***е" on the pavement. Commonly read as "Нет войне" ("No to War"), the woman argued that she meant "Нет вобле" ("No to Vobla"), in a disdain towards vobla, and the accusers could not disprove her statement. This resulted in vobla becoming a minor

internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

.Фраза «Нет вобле» стала мемом. Из протокола о дискредитации ВС РФ — в пикчу «Звёздные воблы»
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References

{{Dried fish Rutilus Fish of the Caspian Sea Taxa named by Vasily Evgrafovich Yakovlev