The living habits and nutritional value of Tuantou bream (Nanyou Mowang Wuchang fish)

Megalobrama amblycephala belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, subfamily Amblycephala, and genus Amblycephala. Commonly known as: Tuan-headed bream, flat-breasted bream. English name: Bluntnose black bream, Wuchangfish, Bluntsnout bream.

The body is tall, very flat on the sides, in a diamond shape, the back of the head is bulging, and the body length is 2.0-2.3 times the body height. The head is small, the snout is rounded and blunt, the mouth is at the end, the orifice is wide, the upper and lower jaws are equal in length, and the cuticles of the upper and lower jaws are thinner; the chest is flat, and the abdomen is only from the base of the pelvic fin to the anus, with cortical ventral ribs. The dorsal fin has smooth hard spines, and its length is smaller than the head length; the anal fin is long, with 27-32 branched fins, and the caudal peduncle is high and short. The back of the body is blue-gray, the sides are silver-gray, the base of each scale on the side is gray-black, and the edges are sparse in melanin, so that the entire side of the body shows rows of purple-black stripes, the abdomen is silver-white, and each fin is gray-black.

Tuanhead bream is mostly found in lakes and is more suitable for living in still water. It usually inhabits the middle and lower layers of open water areas where the substrate is silt and submerged plants grow. Juvenile fish mainly feed on cladocerans and other crustaceans; adult fish feed on aquatic plants, mainly Vallisneria and Hydrilla verticillata, and also eat a small amount of zooplankton. A large amount of feeding begins in April, the fattening period is from June to October, and the feeding intensity is the highest. Feeding stops in November in winter. The 2-year-old is reachable and mature. Between May and June, adult fish gather in flowing water places for breeding. The spawning ground generally needs to have a certain amount of flowing water, dense aquatic plants, soft mud and sandy bottom, and a water depth of 1.0-1.5 meters. , water temperature 20-28℃. The number of eggs conceived is generally 37,000-103,000. Fertilized eggs can hatch in two days and nights when the water temperature is 25°C. Clusters overwinter in mud puddles in deep water.

Tuantou bream is only distributed in medium-sized lakes affiliated with the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The growth rate is relatively fast. The body length of the fish can reach 120-230 mm, and the largest individual can reach about 3 kg. Because it is herbivorous and can reproduce in still water, it has been artificially bred all over the country. The meat of Tuantou bream is tender, juicy and rich in fat, which is better than Changchun bream and triangle bream. Each 100 grams of edible part contains 20.8 grams of protein, 15.8 grams of fat, 0.9 grams of carbohydrates, 229 kcal of calories, 155 mg of calcium, 195 mg of phosphorus, and 2.2 mg of iron. It can be called a top-quality fish. The commonly known "Wuchang fish" is originally a collective name for bream and bream. At the entrance of Liangzi Lake in Hubei Province to the Yangtze River, there is a small town called Fankou, which was called Wuchang County in ancient times. The rivers and lakes here are connected, and many schools of fish can freely move in and out of the rivers and lakes. The lake is rich in natural food and is an important breeding ground for fish. The "bream" produced in Fankou is mainly the bream. The meat of this fish is tender and fatty, especially plump. Therefore, in ancient times, there was a saying that "the bream produced in Fankou is the best in the world". People who come to Wuchang must also try Wuchang. The taste of fish. Wuchang fish has been the object of praise by poets in the past dynasties. Some of the best sentences have been handed down from generation to generation, such as "Don't look for Wuchang fish when traveling south" and "The bream galloping across Kyushu have a home". More than 1,700 years ago, at the end of the Three Kingdoms period, the Lord of Wu, Sun Hao, wanted to move the capital from Jianye to Wuchang. The people were struggling to support the government, and some ministers in the court prevented him from moving the capital. In order to dissuade the Lord of Wu from moving the capital, Prime Minister Zuo wrote a ballad: "I would rather drink Jianye water than eat Wuchang fish; I would rather return to Jianye and die than live in Wuchang..." Since then, the name Wuchang fish has been passed down.

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