Rulena, guban, lapina or greenfinch - a fish from the perch family, which is of industrial value. It is found in the Atlantic and some seas.
The name "guban" is due to the structure: the fish has a large mouth with massive lips. And the “greenfinch” fish is called because of the scales shimmering with all the warm shades of the green scale.
Description
Photos of greenfinch fish posted in our article provide an opportunity to get an idea of how it looks.
The head is large, with an elongated snout. The lips are mobile, soft. The teeth are located on both jaws in one row: in front they are small, flat, about the throat - massive, tuberous.
Color can vary greatly from dark green to light shades of golden with greenish tints. Some greenbacks are covered with blue or purple spots.
The taxis in the Mediterranean Sea grow in length from 25 (females) to 35 (males) centimeters. Gain up to half a kilogram of weight. The Black Sea Gubanas are smaller: about 14 cm in length and 250 g of weight.
Habitat
Fish can be found in the Mediterranean, Black, Azov Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. In the north, the borders of the range extend to Thorndheim (Norway). Large populations live in the Mediterranean, Black and Azov seas along the shores of the Caucasus, Greece, Crimea, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.
This fish is well known to tourists vacationing in the Black Sea resorts. Here it is, to some extent, a tourist attraction. Guban meat is not very tasty, albeit edible. Therefore, fishing is rare. Fish is not afraid of people and allows divers to approach them. It is very interesting to watch large shimmering fishes in the Black Sea.
Guban poses no danger to humans.
The nature of behavior in the natural environment
Zelenukha - fish is not too sociable. It is believed that there is no particular tendency toward schooling, but some individuals are grouped in small groups. Each rulena has its own small territory, which violently protects from the attacks of other fish.
Prefers places with a rocky bottom, overgrown with aquatic vegetation. Winters in the same place where he lives.
Food
Zelenukha feeds mainly on mollusks, mainly bivalves. Unlike most relatives, it does not swallow prey whole, but crushes shells with massive teeth and sucks out food from there. Pieces of shells sponges sponges. We can say that this fish eats pure clam meat.
But an important place in the diet is plant food. Guban gnaws the plant with the same powerful teeth. And the fish sifts a huge amount of sand, choosing from it fragments of plants and marine small living creatures. The diet also includes crustaceans, the shell of which the greenfinch crushes and spits. It happens that a fish eats marine worms.
Breeding
Spawning occurs at the end of spring and the first third of summer. The eggs are ground, sticky.
Shortly before spawning begins, design talent wakes up in the male. He begins to improve the territory in which his children will be born. The nest has an oblong shape and a flat bottom.
Dad puts fragments of shells and flat stones there, which he finds nearby. The male carries everything necessary in his own mouth.
Appeared eggs stick to stones and shells, and from above a caring parent wraps them with scraps of algae so that no one will be hooded by his future offspring.
Courts of the greenfinch are very peculiar. Some males try to charm their girlfriends, but more often than not they take the female in a snap. Ready to start a family, the guban furiously fumbles in the nest, drives several females, hits them, pats them with fins, until one of the completely frightened ones agrees to accept these courtships.
The nest is filled with unfertilized eggs, fertilization occurs after the male swallows the milk.
Habits
Not only courtship games of greenfins can be accompanied by such behavior. If the male does this to the lady of the heart, one can imagine what he is ready to do with a stranger encroaching on his territory.
The nature of the greenfinch is bad, they are wary of fish of other species, especially food competitors. Own relatives are usually avoided, even if they live nearby.
