Bulletin Zoölogisch Museum

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM

Vol.12 No. 6 1989

First record of vimba (Linnaeus, 1758) (Pisces: )

in the

W.G. CazemierI& M.J. Heesen

Abstract

For the first time a specimen of Vimba vimba, a cyprinid fish from eastern European and western Asian rivers, has been re- corded from the Netherlands part of the river Rhine.

DESCRIPTION (Linnaeus, 1758). The opening of the mouth of V.

vimba however is semi-circular with rather soft On January 24, 1989, Mr. W. Bunt caught during lips,

where as in C. nasus the mouth has a trans- seine net fisheries in the river Neder-Rijn an straight,

verse opening with horny lips. V. vimba has 17-20 "unknown" cyprinid fish amongst a catch of roach Ru-

soft in the anal fin 10-12 in C. tilus rutilus (Linnaeus, 1758) and bream Abramis bra- rays against only nasus

(Bauch, 1963). ma(Linnaeus, 1758).

The colour is described as greyish-blue on The fish was identified as Vimba vimba (Linnaeus, usually

the snout, head and back. The fins are pale yellow. 1758) at the Netherlands Institute for Fishery Investi-

The sides and abdomen At the gations (RIVO) and deposited at the Institute of Taxo- are silvery. breeding

season towards the end of or of nomie Zoology (Amsterdam) under number ZMA May beginning June,

the colours change in both sexes. The entire 120.347 (fig. 1). upper

surface, down to below the lateral line, is covered The identification was reconfirmed by Dr. H. Nijs-

with a black sen. deep pigment.

The ventral side from to tail becomes or- Total length of the specimen was 19.9 cm and its lips richly

most 3 coloured. The males tubercles weight was 76.6 g; probably the age was ange-red develop

(Seeley, 1886; Heuschmann, years, according to the growth pattern on its scales. 1957).

The species was easily recognized as a cyprinid. Be- cause of its marked projecting and rounded snout Key-data for identification without barbels it resembles Chondrostoma nasus Some key-data for identification (Bauch, 1963; Heusch- 98

Fig. 1. The specimen of Vimba vimba caught in a sand pit in connection with the river Neder-Rijn near Heteren (The Nether- lands). 99

Map. 1. Distribution of Vimba vimba(from Ladiges & Vogt, 1965; modified).

Map 2. Location of catch of Vimba vimba (arrow). 100

Muus near the of Heteren mann, 1957; & Dahlstram, 1968; Seeley, 1886) are Neder-Rijn (km 895), village (see the following: map 2).

- cyprinid fish with elongated head and semi-circular mouth

opening on the ventral side of the head, without barbels.

- dorsal fin: 8 soft rays.

- anal fin: 17-20 soft rays. REFERENCES

- scales of lateral line: 56-63. BAUCH, G., 1963. Die einheimischen SüBwasserfische: 1-

- pharyngeal teeth: 5-5. 198 (Neumann Verlag, Radebeul und Berlin). -maximum total length: about 55 cm. BLANC, M., P. BANARESCU, J.L. GAUDET& J.C. HU-

REAU, 1971. European inlandwater fish. A multilingual catalogue: 1-24 (Fishing News, Books Ltd., London). Vimba vimba is found in the lower regions of rivers BORCHARD, B„ T. BRENNER & L. STEINBERG, 1986. into the and discharging (Weser, ) Fische in Nordrhein-Westfalen: 1-127 (Ministerium für

Baltic Sea (southern and , GDR, Po- Umwelt, Raumordnung und Landwirdtschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf). land, ). Subspecies live in the (rivers of) the HEUSCHMANN, 0., 1957. Die WeiBfische (Cyprinidae).- and the (Blanc et al., 1971; In: R. Demolí & H.N. Maier: Handbuch der Binnenfis-

cherei 3 23-199 Schweizer- Ladiges & Vogt, 1965; Muus & Dahlstrom, 1968; Ni- Mitteleuropas, (8): (E. bart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart). kolski, 1957), see map 1. LADIGES, W. & D. VOGT, 1965. Die SüBwasserfische Eu-

the has been recorded from the 1-250 Recently species ropas: (Paul Parey, Hamburg, Berlin). MUUS, B.J. & P. DAHLSTR0M, 1968. Zoetwatervissen- Lippe and the Dhünn, tributaries of the river Rhine in gids: 1-224 (Elsevier, Amsterdam). the FRG (Borchard et ai., 1986). NIKOLSKI, G.W., 1957. Spezielle Fischkunde: 1-632 (VEB Fish from the German part of the Rhine can migrate Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin). SEELEY, H.G., 1886. The fresh-water fishes of Europe: 1- without any obstructions into Dutch waters. 444 (Cassell and Company, Ltd., London, etc.). The Dutch specimen was caught in a 20 m deep sand pit, very close to and in connection with the river

W.G. Cazemier,

M.J. Heesen,

Netherlands Institute for Fishery Investigations, Received: 22 June 1989.

P.O. Box 68, Revised: 6 September 1989. 1970 AB IJmuiden, Distributed: 3-XI-1989.

The Netherlands.

This periodical is regularly published by the Instituteof Taxonomie Zoology (Zoölogisch Museum), of the University

of Amsterdam. for sale of this be the Requests exchange or publication may addressed to Administration. This in periodical may be quoted abbreviation as Bull. zool. Mus. Univ. Amsterdam.

ISSN 0165 - 9464