Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) is a freshwater, brackish species recorded in the United States. It is found at depths of ≥ 0 m.
Scientific name: Scardinius erythrophthalmus · Water: Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 61.7 cm
The rudd is a benthopelagic leuciscid whose adults occur mainly in nutrient-rich, well vegetated lowland rivers, backwaters, oxbows, ponds and lakes. It is recorded from the surface, with no maximum depth recorded for it, and it also enters brackish water. It feeds mainly on plankton, terrestrial insects and plant material, and its breeding occurs on roots or submerged plants, with colourless or pale yellow eggs attached to vegetation in shallow water. It adapts to unfavourable environmental conditions, and it has been introduced widely and is regarded as a potential pest outside its native range. Its native range is Eurasia, in most European rivers north of the Pyrenees and the Alps and eastward to the Ural and Eya drainages, the Aral and White Sea basins and the Black Sea basin, and it is naturally absent from the Iberian Peninsula, the Adriatic basin, Italy, Greece south of the Pinios drainage and Great Britain north of 54 degrees north. Maximum length is about 61.7 cm total length, commonly about 20 cm, and it can live 19 years, maturing at about 8.1 cm. It is a minor commercial species, a commercial aquaculture species, a gamefish, a commercial aquarium fish and a usual bait species. Fishing vulnerability is high to very high at 69 of 100 and resilience low. IUCN lists it as least concern.
Back to home · United States · Species library