Origin
In Europe it is found from England and southern Sweden to the Urals.
In our country rosioara (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) is present in the Danube, in all the rivers and their floodplain, starting with the hilly area, in all the lakes in the lowland regions, in all the littoral lakes, in the ghiols and ponds in the Danube Delta, in all the ponds in Transylvania and Moldova, in all the accumulation lakes in the hilly and plain areas, in many dead arms of the hilly and lowland rivers, etc.
Red Food
Adult tomato generally consumes food of plant origin (plant particles, filamentous algae, vegetable detritus) and less zooplankton (Daphnia, Cyclops, Bosmina, etc.), insect larvae, worms, small racusori.
Summer can often be seen biting at the surface of the water in mosquitoes and midges.
Features Tomato
The body of the tomato is elongated, compressed laterally, of variable height, and covered with medium-sized scales, well fixed. The muzzle is short, the mouth small, terminal, oblique upwards.
The caudal is deeply hollow, with equal lobes. The lateral line is continuous, slightly close to the ventral side of the fish. The eyes are deeply implanted, with a red spot.
The dorsal side of the fish is dark blue with green or tan reflections, sometimes blackish. The sides of the fish are Silvery, Sometimes with metallic luster or whitish, the ventral side is white.
The fins, except those of the young specimens, have a smoky base and red tips, with a variable intensity, hence the popular name of tomato.
Typically, the tomato has a length of 18-24 cm, less often reaches 35 cm, and the average weight is 200-300 g, but it can also reach 1-1.5 kg. It grows slowly and poorly capitalizes on food from waves and the slow pace of development.
Rosioara is a sedentary species, which lives mainly in fresh, standing waters, where it maintains itself in the company of crucian carp, Lynx and bream near the bottom of the water, where vegetation abounds.
It is found in all kinds of stagnant waters, even in brackish ones, both in hilly areas and in lowland regions.
It is also found in the smallest ponds and dead arms overgrown with vegetation, where during certain periods the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water drops to a critical level for fish life.
So, the tomato resists the acute lack of oxygen, in flowing waters it is quartered in the bends of water with very slow course and in the side arms of these, it likes oozing bottoms, with a lot of vegetable detritus.
Red Reproduction
Reaches sexual maturity at 3-4 years. It breeds between April and June, and in hilly waters even in early July.
Spawns at a water temperature of 17-18degrees C. A female lays 30000-150000 Roe grains with a diameter of 1-1.2 mm,redheads, which after fertilization stick to underwater plants.
