Over all color olive-green fading to a silverwhiteon belly. Fins dark olive-bronze with heavily pigmentedmembranes. Peritoneum dusky to black. Nobarbels. 10-15 coarse denticles on dorsal and anal finspine. Gill rakers long with serrated interior margins,reaching the fifth to eighth raker below when appressed.Gut coiled with several loops. A hardy fish survive winterkills,low oxygen, turbidity, high salinity (17‰), andhigh pollution waters with much aquatic vegetation.Maximum age 5 years, greater in gynogenetic than inbisexual populations. Maximum total length 35 cm andweight 1,240 g. Maturity at first year and coupled withpolycyclic ripening of eggs and intermittent spawning.Spawning from February to August. Absolut fecundityup to 85,160 eggs with a diameter of 1.6 mm. Adhesiveeggs laid in 2-5 batches on plants. Food mostly includezooplankton, also, aquatic insects, crustaceans, molluscs,worms, detritus, filamentous algae and young fish.