Barbel - Barbus barbus

The adult barbel is generally a golden brown or bronzy colour with a dark green coloured back. It has a golden yellow colour on its sides, which fades to white on its belly. The fins are tinged with a shade of red or sometimes orange. The barbel has a strong serrated spine leading from its dorsal fin and care must be taken as it may become caught within the netting and break.

Young barbel have dark brown spots on their body and may be mistaken for gudgeon at this age, although gudgeon only have two barbules as opposed to four. Young barbel are considered mature after around four or five years, by which time they have usually reached a length of between 25cm - 75cm.

It is difficult to confuse the barbel with any other fish due to its stunning colouration, but for those who may be unsure, just focus your attention to the fish's mouth.

Barbel have two pairs of sensory barbules around their underslung mouths, which they use to search for food on the floor of the riverbed. The smaller pair of barbules is located at the tip of the snout and the two longer ones at the corner of its leathery mouth.

The shape of the fish's head and mouth is ideal for rooting and digging around on the bottom of gravely beds and their barbules are extra sensitive to taste and touch thus immediately searching out any kind of food.

This species of fish dwell in well-oxygenated, fast moving rivers with gravel or stony bottoms, which is where they feed and also where the females lay their eggs. It is not uncommon, however, for barbel to thrive in slower moving waters as well.

Larger quantities of barbel will be found where the water flows faster and where there is more oxygen within it. This could include areas such as downstream from a weir or even under the weir, on the outside bend of a river where the water is turbulent, in deep steady glides and in sections of a river where deep water is forced to pass through a narrow bottleneck.

Barbel generally choose to rest in areas where there is an abundance of streamer weeds or small trees lining the river edge under which they can conceal themselves from predators and preying anglers.