Listen to the Song – Nature’s Surprises
The complete lyrics are included in the companion book, Our Jewels in the Water, allowing readers to follow every song while discovering the remarkable stories behind our freshwater fish.
Enjoying the music?
The companion book Our Jewels in the Water includes the full lyrics, additional stories, exclusive photographs and beautiful illustrations for every species.
The Hybrids
The Runts of Our Waters
“Neither quite one nor quite the other, the hybrid carries two family stories in a single silver body.”
Species Profile
Amongst Britain’s freshwater fish are individuals that don’t fit neatly into a single species.
They are the hybrids.
Hybridisation can occur when two closely related fish species reproduce together, producing offspring that carry characteristics inherited from both parents.
For anglers, some of the most familiar examples involve our silver fish.
Roach can hybridise with Bream.
Roach and Rudd can also produce hybrids.
Bream and Rudd hybrids may occur too.
To the inexperienced eye, these fish can easily be mistaken for one of their parent species.
But look more carefully and something doesn’t quite add up.
The body shape may suggest one fish.
The fins another.
The eye, mouth, scale pattern or colour may provide another clue.
They are neither one nor the other.
They are something in between.
Clive’s Story
Hybrids have always been one of the great identification puzzles for anglers.
You bring a fish towards the landing net and initially think:
That’s a Roach.
Then you look again.
Perhaps the body is too deep.
The fins don’t look quite right.
The colour seems different.
Suddenly you begin wondering whether there is some Bream in there as well.
That is when fishing becomes more than simply catching fish.
You start examining what you have caught.
You count scales.
You look at fins.
You study the mouth and body shape.
And sometimes even experienced anglers can disagree.
I’ve always enjoyed that side of fishing because it reminds us that nature doesn’t necessarily follow the convenient labels we put into identification books.
Every now and again it gives us something that makes us think again.
Natural History
Natural hybridisation is most likely between species that are sufficiently closely related and whose spawning periods and habitats overlap.
When large numbers of fish gather to spawn, eggs and milt from different but related species can occasionally come together.
The resulting offspring may inherit a mixture of physical characteristics from both parents.
Some hybrids are capable of surviving extremely well and can grow into impressive fish.
Their feeding behaviour may also reflect characteristics inherited from both parent species.
Identification from appearance alone can sometimes be difficult.
For particularly unusual specimens, detailed examination — and in scientific work, genetic analysis — may be needed to establish parentage confidently.
Interesting Facts
- Hybrids result from reproduction between two different but related species.
- Several naturally occurring fish hybrids are found in British fresh waters.
- Roach × Bream is one of the better-known combinations.
- Roach × Rudd hybrids also occur.
- Rudd × Bream hybrids can occur.
- Hybrids may display characteristics of both parents.
- Identification can sometimes be surprisingly difficult.
- Body shape, fins, scales, eye colour and mouth position can all provide clues.
- Not every unusual-looking fish is necessarily a hybrid.
- Some hybrids can grow to impressive sizes.
- Scientific identification may sometimes require genetic testing.
- Hybrids demonstrate just how complicated freshwater ecology can be.
Behind the Song
The title The Runts of Our Waters is deliberately provocative.
Because are these fish really runts?
I don’t think they are.
They may not fit perfectly into the categories we have created, but that doesn’t make them inferior.
A hybrid may be beautifully proportioned, powerful and perfectly capable of surviving alongside the species around it.
For an angler, it may actually be more interesting than the fish we expected to catch.
The song celebrates those odd ones out.
The fish that make us look twice.
The ones that don’t quite fit the identification chart.
Nature has never worried very much about our labels.
Sometimes it simply produces something different.
And perhaps the so-called runts deserve to be celebrated as jewels too.
Conservation and Identification
Hybrids can tell us a great deal about the fish communities living within a water.
Correct identification is particularly important when recording catches or studying populations of closely related species.
However, hybridisation also needs to be understood in context.
Natural hybridisation has occurred amongst fish for a very long time and can simply be part of the biology of closely related species sharing the same habitat.
Problems can arise when people introduce fish into waters where they do not naturally belong.
Such introductions may create new opportunities for hybridisation and potentially affect vulnerable native populations.
Fish should therefore never be transferred between waters without the appropriate permissions and proper fishery management.
Protecting genetic diversity is another important part of protecting our freshwater heritage.
Clive’s Reflection
I have spent a lifetime looking at fish.
You would think that after all those years identification would always be easy.
It isn’t.
And that is part of what keeps fishing fascinating.
Every so often a fish comes along that makes you stop.
You turn it slightly.
Look at the fins.
Look at the scales.
Study the shape of its head.
Then somebody standing beside you says:
“What do you reckon that is?”
And suddenly the debate begins.
Those moments remind me that we are still students of the water.
However much experience we accumulate, nature can always give us another puzzle.
So perhaps The Runts of Our Waters aren’t runts at all.
Perhaps they are simply nature reminding us that not every jewel has to fit neatly into a box.
“Nature doesn’t read our identification books — and occasionally it writes a fish of its own.”