Monday, July 18, 2011

Golomyanka

An unique and amazing fish lives in the depth of Lake Baikal. Golomyanka is pretty small, has a translucent body with no scales and exists only in the lake. However the rarity is not the main feature of this wonderful specie. It was founded that this fish is viviparous. Earlier  it was recognized that "give birth" only fish of tropical waters in temperate latitudes in the north and fish spawn. How could hit the cold waters of the lake, this strange fish?
Later research scientists Baikal have found that living in the lake are two types of golomyanok - small and large golomyanka. And both of these species are of local (autochthonous) origin and were formed in the Baikal waters about two million years ago.
  

 Limnologists scientists found that golomyanka can make during the day vertical movement to maximum depths. These fish do not spend energy on the pursuit of food, and easy to "float" in the water column. Quick response allows them to swim up close enough instantly crustaceans or their own fry. Despite the fact that this fish is a solitary lifestyle, without losing in shoals, golomyanka is a huge percentage of the biomass of all fish in the lake (about 200 thousand tons!). 

 Baikal is a great and wonderful unique ecological system, a small freshwater ocean where you can find such wonderful species like a fish-golomyanka, fishes, zhivorodkam and a lot of other of mysteries and discoveries.