Abramis brama - Common Bream

Taxonomy

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Actinopterygii

Order: Cypriniformes

Family: Cyprinidae

Common bream, also sometimes referred to as Bronze Bream, are fish of sluggish water. Bream are long lived and can attain an age of 20 years in suitable circumstances.Once a major source of food for poor people in some parts of Britain, Common Bream are shoal fish and can grown to over 10lb (approx. 4.5 kg). The British rod-caught record, from Lodge Lake, Bawburgh, in Norfolk, weighed 18lb 9oz (8.437kg); it was caught by Kerry Walker in 2001.

Bream are bottom feeders, living mainly on insect larvae from the muddy beds of canals, lakes and slow-flowing rivers. They lay their spawn among weeds in shallow water during June and July, at which time the males develop white lumps, called tubercles, on their heads.

Young bream are commonly referred to as skimmers or skimmer bream; they are sometimes mistakenly identified as Silver Bream (Blicca bjoerkna), a much smaller species with large eyes and reddish pectoral and pelvic fins.