Coregonus albula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Freyhof, JÖrg, Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash & Kaya, Cüneyt, 2025, Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia, De Gruyter : 619-620

Coregonus albula

Common name. Baltic cisco.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from Lake Sevan whitefish by: ● mouth superior, upper jaw shorter than lower one / ● 38–50 gill rakers. Size up to about 350 mm SL, many populations much smaller.

Distribution. Introduced in 1930s from Lake Ladoga ( Russia) to Lake Paravani ( Georgia) and Lake Kartsakhi (Aktaş, Türkiye). Native to Baltic basin, lakes of upper Volga drainage (Seliger, Vseluga, Perejaslavskoe), some lakes of White Sea and North Sea basins east of Elbe drainage. Anadromous in Gulf of Finland and marine in northernmost freshwater part of Gulf of Bothnia. North to about 69°N in Lake Inari, northern Finland. Native also all over northern Europe, Siberia and Pacific America, where C. sardinella is a synonym.

Habitat. Lacustrine and marine, in open water. At sea, foraging close to shore. Spawns on banks, 3–10 m deep, rarely down to 22 m or just below surface. Spawns deeper in clear lakes and closer to surface in humic lakes.

Biology. Anadromous, marine and freshwater populations. Spawns first time at 2–5 years ( 2–3 in Lake Onega), males usually earlier than females. Spawns in October (Central Finland) December (Northern Germany) at 6–7°C. Anadromous populations begin river migration in August (Neva). Eggs hatch March–April, and juveniles migrate to sea in late summer of first year in anadromous populations. Larvae pelagic, near surface and usually near coast. Adults usually in deep waters during day, moving to upper layers at night. Feeds on zooplankton.

Open Access. © 2025 JÖrg Freyhof, Baran Yoğurtçuoğlu, Arash Jouladeh-Roudbar and Cüneyt Kaya, published by De Gruyter. the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111677811-030

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Conservation status. Non-native; introduced for commercial fisheries.

Further reading. Svärdson 1979 (morphology, distribution); Nikolsky & Reshetnikov 1970 (systematics); Yerli 2019 (introduced record from Türkiye).