Rudd

The rudd is a sociable cyprinid with a brassy to golden sheen, bright orange to blood-red fins and a high-backed body. In the Franconian Saale it is bound even more strongly than the roach to standing or very slow-flowing, heavily weeded areas and often stays near the surface in calm, plant-rich bays, backwaters and impoundments. As a warmth-loving surface and plant feeder it too is recorded for the Saale.

How to identify it

Characteristic are the superior, upward-pointing mouth with a protruding lower jaw, the yellow-golden iris, the dorsal fin set clearly to the rear, and the sharply keeled belly edge between pelvic and anal fin.

Look-alikes

From the very similar roach it is distinguished by the superior rather than terminal mouth, the dorsal fin clearly behind rather than above the pelvic fin, the yellow-golden rather than red eye, and the sharply keeled rather than rounded belly edge between pelvic and anal fin.