Brook Barbel

Names in dialect: barbi, barbiol, barbol, pantaciot.

The brook barbel is distinguished from the common barbel by its yellowish colouring with brown patches on the body and fins, its larger scales (about 44 – 57 in number along the lateral line, while the common barbel can have up to 82), the anal fin, which goes beyond the point where the caudal is inserted and its smaller size. It rarely exceeds 20 cm in length.
Brook barbel live in small groups in watercourses flowing through foothills in pebble and rocky-bottomed slow-flowing waters, which may be small but have a high dissolved oxygen content (eg. lower reaches of the Avisio), along with trout, bullhead, minnows, chub and barbel. They move along riverbeds, turning over pebbles with their snouts to uncover the zoobenthon they feed on.
They spawn at the age of three years (females four), in May - July: the schools move to shallow waters with gravel beds where the females deposit a few hundred eggs, which hatch after a few days. Some have hybridised with common barbel.
Brook barbel populations are in decline due to the artificial reduction in river and lake capacities, declining water quality and man-made alterations to riverbeds.