The golden crucian, which was once considered the usual freshwater fish in Ukraine, has almost disappeared from many rivers in the country. The ichthyology of the Institute of Zoology. II Schmalgauzen NAS of Ukraine Yulia Kutsokon in an interview with Telegraph.
According to Scientific, at the beginning of the XX century, the golden crucian from the Koropov family was widespread throughout Ukraine. But the situation began to change in the middle of the last century, when during the creation of artificial reservoirs into the reservoirs began to start the carp of silver.
" We still do not know whether the silver crucian is native to Ukraine, whether it has been brought earlier - in particular for Europe ," Kutsokon said.
According to one of the hypotheses, the silver crucian simply displaced the gold, although, as the scientist specifies, the problem is deeper: the golden crucian requires special conditions for spawning - floodplain reservoirs, not deep reservoirs with rotten plants.
" In reservoirs where the plants are constantly flooded and rot, the golden carp is much worse ," the expert explains.
Earlier, this fish could live up to 10-12 years, but today its number has fallen critically. Now the gold crucian is preserved only on the gums and in separate floodplains, and then in very small quantities.
The disappearance of gold crucian is another signal of environmental degradation of natural reservoirs caused by human intervention in natural hydraulic systems. Experts are urging not to ignore these changes, as they can have much broader consequences for Ukraine biodiversity.
