Asp

Conservation state: FFH II, 3 endangered (Germany), 3 endangered (Niedersachsen)

Description: The Asp is a withefish that more and more tends to prey on fishes while gowing up. Its stretched, lateral flattened bodyshape in addition to the very large tailfin which in water mostly looks a little bit darkened than the rest of the body ist an ideal qualifikation for extreme swimming performance that is needed to prey on small fishes. Prey on fishes often takes place near to the surface where it is accompanied by loud pounding of waves because of the size and strength of the fishes. Adult individuals may reach a length of one metre with a weight of about 10 kilos.

Appearance: Originally Balkan, River Elbe and eastward from that. In the meanwhile also in the rivers Weser and Rhine omnipresent.

Lifecycle: As a potamodromous migrating fish the adult asp may run up to 100 km within bigger rivers. Migration is made for spawning places with gravel and in the search of prey. The requirements on the gravel qualitiy are low  so that  survival of this species does not depend on this factor as it does for the migrating salmonids.
 

Features : The Asp is a very mobile fishspecies that even besides the spawningseason is able to cover a large distance within few time. Beeing a species living in the large rivers the asp spreads more and more into channels such as the midlandchannel (Mittellandkanal) in Northern Germany.

Fischökologie ??

und NLÖ ?