The title translates to: "Pike - Kadimki and Murut."
Pike
A widely distributed species, it lives in large and small rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds, preferring clean and fresh, but not too cold water.
The common pike is a small fish (usually no larger than 15 cm, rarely up to 22 cm in length) with an elongated, spindle-shaped body covered with large scales, absent on the belly between the pectoral fins and the interbranch gap, a somewhat flattened head with upward-facing eyes.
The dorsal and anal fins of the pike are short, with a whisker on each side of the mouth. The back of the pike is greenish-brown, the silver sides are covered with bluish or dark spots, sometimes merging into a solid dark stripe, and the belly is silvery, slightly yellowish. All fins are grayish, the dorsal and forked tail fins are sprinkled with dark spots, and the eyes are yellow.
Usually, throughout spring and summer, schools of pike stay on rapids or nearby, in shallow areas with rocky or sandy bottoms, which is how they got their name. Pike lead a diurnal lifestyle and never swim at night, instead lying motionless on the bottom, propped up by their lower fins — like on supports. In the midday heat, they sometimes also stay in one place for a long time, which is why pike are called columns or little columns in some places. The pike feeds on small bottom invertebrates and always stays close to the bottom, where its mottled coloration provides good camouflage. In spring, it consumes a large amount of the eggs of other fish.
This fish reaches sexual maturity in its 2nd to 4th year of life and spawns from April to June in shallow waters with a rocky substrate, sometimes among the thickets of water buttercup. Spawning is quite noisy: pike raise their tails and most of their bodies above the water and hit it with them. The female releases eggs in batches, totaling from 1 to 3 thousand eggs. The small bluish eggs stick firmly to the substrate, sometimes covering the bottom with a solid layer. Usually, they become encrusted with sand grains or small particles of silt and become less noticeable. However, most of the eggs end up being preyed upon by the same pike, which also destroy a large number of newly hatched fry. The surviving larvae lie motionless on the illuminated bottom for some time, propped up by their large pectoral fins. Later, they move from the rapids to quieter, but shallow places, where they stay all summer, feeding on daphnia, cyclops, and other small organisms. They grow very quickly, especially in rivers. In October or November, pike almost disappear and go to winter in ponds or lakes or deep river pits, possibly sometimes burrowing into the silt.
In the water bodies of Kyrgyzstan, there are two subspecies — the Turkestan and Issyk-Kul. The second subspecies is found only in the basin of Lake Issyk-Kul and is considered endemic.
The Turkestan pike is more widely distributed, found in riverbeds, in their backwaters, in channels, and rice paddies, but not above the foothills. It is considered a "weed" fish, an egg-eater, and a food competitor of other fish.
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