Eastern bream - Chyghys tyrany
Eastern Bream - Abramis brama orientalis
The bream is considered to have acclimatized in the territory of Kyrgyzstan as early as the beginning of the last century. Subsequently, it was brought from the ponds of the Chui Valley to Lake Issyk-Kul, where it, along with the tench, occupied suitable niches for life in the freshwater bays of the lake. It is widespread in the Aral Sea, Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Sary Su; in the Chui River — from the lower reaches to the Tashatkulskoe Reservoir, but is most numerous in the floodplain lakes and backwaters (uzyaki) of the lower Chui (from the village of Furmanovka and below). In Issyk-Kul, Balkhash, and in the lakes of the Talas River basin (Biylikol, Akkol, "Kazoty"), bream has been artificially bred.
It is easy to identify a bream in the catch. It has a high, laterally flattened body with large scales and a long lower lobe of the tail fin. Young bream are called "podleschiki," which, unlike adult individuals, have a silvery-white coloration. The adult bream has a brown or black back and yellowish-golden sides.
Bream grows quickly. In large bodies of water, it can reach 40–45 cm in length and more than 3 kg in weight. It is an ecologically plastic fish, well adapted to different conditions. It prefers lake conditions but also lives in rivers and canals.
The lifestyle of bream in the Chui basin is poorly studied. It reaches sexual maturity in the water bodies of the Chui Valley at a weight of 3 years, while in the lakes of Balkhash, Biylikol, Akkol (Talas River basin) and Issyk-Kul, the majority of bream become sexually mature at the age of 4–5 years.
Spawning begins at a water temperature of 15–18°C. The eggs stick to last year's or currently growing vegetation and other underwater objects. In the backwaters of Issyk-Kul (Kalganov, Kruglenkiy, Nikolaevskiy, and other backwaters of the Tyup Bay), bream spawns from May to the end of June — early July. The late and extended spawning is due to a more stringent hydrometric regime than in other water bodies. Bream lays its eggs on submerged or soft aquatic vegetation (potamogeton, hornwort, and others). Usually, it releases two batches of eggs with an interval of 20–30 days. The batch coefficient and absolute individual fecundity increase with age (from 20,000 to 270,000 eggs).
In terms of feeding habits, bream is a polyphagous fish. Its young (0+) in the Chui feed on lower crustaceans, larvae of aquatic insects, and filamentous algae. Adult bream (17–28 cm) feed on macrophytes (up to 68% by weight), chironomids, detritus flakes, and larvae of aquatic insects. In Issyk-Kul, bream measuring from 12.6 to 18 cm, caught in the Tyup Bay in August 1960, primarily consumed planktonic crustaceans, chironomid larvae, filamentous algae, and detritus, while small amounts of macrophytes, gammarids, mysids, and water mites were found in the intestines of the bream.
Fish
