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Male river fish show feminised traits

Anthony Pearson

Anthony Pearson

Senior Member
We've known about the problems of chemicals in river water, specifically from the contraceptive pill, but this study also refers to fish behaviour. It also begs the question as to whether this form of pollution is also partly responsible for fish growth?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/scienc...eminised-traits-due-to-chemicals-flushed-away

On a different note, what size do male barbel grow to compared to females? Taking tench as an example, the given yardstick was that in any water the biggest female would be roughly 1.5 times the weight of the biggest male. Anyone know if this applies to Barbel?
 
Alan Henshaw who runs the EA Fish Farm told me 6lbs is about the top weight for a male with a really exceptional fish being 8lbs. He should know they have bred millions from brood stock they gather from the wild.
 
Yes, well the reason I asked is that I had a very aggressive 9lb+ fish the other day, which had me wondering if it was a male. Following on from that (and the multiplying factor to calculate the female of the species) perhaps twice this weight would give me the potential best from the river?

Quelle surprise... the current record is 19.04 :)
 
Thrashed around during the fight (and it put up a determined one), when being rested and also on the mat. Wasn't having any of it. Could have been a belligerent female, I suppose, but we'll never know.

P.S. Not a Nidd nutter, of course :)
 
John, i remember Alan Henshaw doing a talk in Uxbridge years ago saying that males reached about 7lb maximum.In those days the record was around 14lb so around half the maximum weight.I would think that the maximum length of males would be around the same as in the past, but with the increased feeding of quality bait these males, if Fat/chunky could weigh a lot heavier.I have seen a female put on over 5lb,during the course of a season(almost 2lb in a week) with heavy baiting, so why could a long male not put on 2/3lb with heavy baiting. Alan might also have been removing brood fish from the rivers to take to Calverton during the close season when the fish have not seen anglers baits for some time.I seem to remember Calverton used to remove these brood fish from fairly sparse/remote/unspoilt/unpolluted/high quality water rivers where heavy baiting would probably not have been done so much. Ps Alan Henshaw is a great speaker,if you have the chance to see him
 
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