Dace ?

[David C]

Been reading this excellent article on the Trent by the late Rodney Coldron

http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/features/anghist.htm

Towards the end it mentions a dace like fish called the Graining. Just wondered if anyone knows any more about it. A quick web search comes up with some dictionary sites describing it as a small European fish.I suppose it could be another name for a dace but the article says it has slightly different colouring.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

The graining is a fish of the dace kind found chiefly in the Mediterranean and its tributaries and in some of the Swiss lakes. The nose is more rounded than that of the dace, the eye larger, and the dorsal fin commences half-way between the point of the nose and the end of the fleshy portion of the tail.

 

[Mark Wintle]

At one time ( around 1900?)it was thought that a different species of dace called graining existed in several Northern rivers particularly Lancashire but all attempts to prove the case found only dace which suggests that it was just a local race. This is similar to the differences in roach between waters.

 

[David C]

I suppose their colouring could be caused by adapting to differences in water clarity, in much the same way as Perch do.