Another Dave
Well-known member
The colours look right but something about the shape has me wondering.
It's not my fish but there's a lake pretty close to me that they say has these to 3lb.
What do you chaps reckon?
The problem with that view is that in time anglers collectively lose sight of what the original actually looks like. This is what has happened widely on the Continent where the spread of gibel carp has pushed the crucian into near extinction yet the local name for crucian, e.g. carassio (Italy), carassin (France), has transferred to what are actually gibel carp.I've decided I really can't tell a true crucian but if it looks like one, struggles like one and graces my net , I'm happy to call it a crucian. I won't be claiming any records so it's my own affair. I will look more closely at the next one I catch as most are small and look like crucian to me.
Mike did you never fish the ponds around Chelford, Alderly Edge area 1950s/60s when you were a kid? Because if you did, you'll have had a true crucians many times and they all looked like the one in Keith's photo.I accept your critique and cannot argue with it. However I'm a simple soul who catches" crucians" rarely and who , in truth, may never have caught a true one. I feel those smaller ones I have caught look more like the carrassus carrassus we seek and I will look more closely at any larger examples I may catch to see if the various true characteristics are in evidence ie lateral scale number , ribs on anal fin and a straight tail line. If a water declares the presence of crucians and I catch something that to my mind looks like one then I'm content to conclude, rightly or wrongly, that it is. I'm the only one deceived.
If not officially stocked in a water how do brown goldfish get there or develop?