Over all color silver y. Back bluish to gr eyblackwith upper flanks greenish. Fins red or immaculate.Pharyngeal teeth compressed with striated grindingsurfaces. Gill rakers long, thin and spongy. Gut long andcomplexly coiled. Elongate and compressed body. Eyeslow on head with their lower margin below mouth cornerlevel. Terminal mouth without barbels. Gill membranejoined and free of isthmus. Weak dorsal and anal unbranchedrays. A ventral keel from throat or pelvic finsto anus. A riverine fish extensively cultivated in ponds.Tolerates salinities up to 12‰ and temperatures of 0-40ºC. Maximum age 20 years, total length 1 m andweight 26 kg. Maturity at 4-5 years. Require cool, flowingwater to breed. Spawning migration begins at end ofApril, at 16-17°C. Spawning in April-June, at 21-23°C,after a sharp rise in water level and speed. No report onits natural reproduction in Iran. Absolute fecundity up to1,525,000 large, greyish eggs, with a diameter of up to5.6 mm when hardened. Food mainly include phytoplanktonin spring and summer and zooplankton in falland winter.