Today we are going to talk about pike fish. This fish has the name of pike because that is the name of the Polish weapon it resembles. It also has other common names such as the great northern pike, grass pike, the crocodile fish (this is because its head is similar to that of a crocodile). Its scientific name is esox lucius and has quite a bit of curiosity.
In this article we are going to talk in depth about the pike fish, so if you want to know everything about it, you just have to keep reading 🙂
Key features
This fish belongs to the genus Exos. These fish live in brackish and fresh waters. They are capable of living in both environments. Its color is olive green and it has some shaded yellow and white specks on its belly. It also has short and light bar-shaped spots in the flank area. Some of them have dark spots on the part of the fins.
To recognize a younger pike we have to look at the yellow stripes that it has along its body. A curiosity that this fish has is that in the lower half of its gills it stops having scales. Also, if you look closely at that crocodile-like head, we can see sensory pores. These pores are distributed throughout the head, especially in the lower part of the jaw to better understand the environment in which it is at all times.
There are some hybrid species of pike fish such as the Esox musquin tiger. In this type of species, the sex of each specimen has a great difference from the other. The males are sterile and cannot continue to have offspring, so they are a single generation species. However, on some occasions the female is fertile and can be crossed with some parent species.
We can also find the silver pike fish. It is not a subspecies or anything like that, but it is a mutation that occurs in populations that are more dispersed.
Behavior of the pike fish
These fish are able to develop movements to start swimming very fast. This great acceleration causes small swimming bursts that make their prey fear their unpredictable movements.
Not only do they use this great starter to hunt, but to avoid being involved in life-threatening situations. They may have a sedentary life, but when they detect their prey, They employ the blasts to launch and capture them without too much trouble.
During the movements that the pike fish uses for hunting, it performs some in an S shape. This it does to be able to swim at high speeds. When you want to decelerate, they have to do a C-shaped swim that helps them to slow down very noticeably.
These bursts are part of their behavior thanks to the fact that these animals have a very fast digestion. Not having to expend energy on such a long digestion, they are quite light and can undergo these almost instantaneous bursts of speed. This is how they get the largest number of prey during a day. Unlike during the day they are more active, during the night they are quite calm and rest most of that time.
Habitat and area of distribution
These fish can be found in natural habitats formed by shallow and slow water streams. It must be taken into account that, for the pike fish to be able to perform its burst explosion, the speed of the water cannot be very great or it would become a great resistance to overcome. You can also find them in places where there are weeds in lakes, in cold, clear and rocky waters. Hence its name of pike of the grass.
In general, they are predators who use ambush as an attacking resource. They are sedentary and hide among the rocks to assault their prey with the blast at the best possible time. They are able to reserve their energies and stay perfectly still for a long time so that their ambush is the best possible. This ensures that it does not have any fault when it comes to capturing its prey and eating.
They can be found in any habitat that have a body of water and have plenty of food for them. They require suitable places for spawning, as it is an essential element for their reproduction.
They can often be observed with cannibalistic behavior, so pike fish need habitats where they can take refuge among plants so as not to be eaten by their own species. They live more in fresh water than brackish, it can only be seen in the waters of the Baltic Sea. In the rest of the places it lives in fresh water.
The less cloudy the water, the better. This is related to the dependence these fish have on the presence of vegetation to hide from others. Fewer plants grow in murky waters due to lack of light and strong water currents, so they will have trouble hiding from their own and hunting.
Reproduction
These fish choose the spring time to breed. This can be due to a number of reasons. It is probably because at this time of year they have more prey to feed on or their prey pass by during migration time. It may also be due to better energy conservation due to warmer water temperatures.
The pike fish is capable of reaching their sexual maturity and reproduce from two years of age. It spawns in the spring time when the water temperature reaches approximately nine degrees.
Females are capable of laying large numbers of eggs. This is due to the fact that they guarantee reproductive success since more than half of the eggs will not reach adulthood. Once the eggs are released by the females, if the water temperature is less than six degrees, they will not hatch. Perhaps this serves to explain why they reproduce in the spring.
I hope that with this information you can get to know the pike fish better.