Head to head
Vimba Bream vs Common Bream
Vimba Bream
VS Common Bream
The vimba bream and the common bream share a name and a place in the carp family, but one is a slender runner of clean gravel rivers and the other a deep, slab-sided shoaler of slow, muddy water.
| Vimba Bream | Common Bream | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Vimba vimba | Abramis brama |
| Relationship | A member of the carp family, not a true bream of the same genus | A true bream, and the species that gives the group its name |
| Body shape | A slender, silvery body with an olive to bluish-grey back and a forked tail | A tall, flattened, slab-sided body with a slender tail and a long anal fin |
| Snout and mouth | A pointed snout that overhangs the mouth, used to feed along the bottom | Can push its mouth out into a downward-pointing tube to suck food from the mud |
| Size | Usually 25 to 35 cm long, though some grow larger | Much larger when full-grown, with a heavier, deeper body |
| Breeding | Males darken in the breeding season, with a nearly black head and belly and bright orange to red fins, and fish migrate upstream to spawn over clean gravel | Males develop white spawning tubercles on the head and body in spring, and spawn in shallow, weedy water |
| Habitat | Rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters of the Baltic, North, Black, and Caspian Sea basins | Slow rivers, lakes, and brackish waters across northern and central Europe, east to western Asia |
| Conservation status | Least Concern, though it has disappeared from some rivers affected by dams and pollution | Least Concern, and one of the most abundant fish in the waters of northern Europe |
Vimba Bream vs Common Bream: common questions
Is the vimba bream a true bream?
It is a relative in the carp family, but it belongs to a different genus from the common bream, and has a slimmer body and a pointed snout.
Which one spawns on gravel?
The vimba bream, which migrates upstream in spring and early summer to spawn over clean gravel in rivers.
Which one has a tube-like mouth?
The common bream, which can push its mouth out into a downward-pointing tube to suck worms, larvae, and snails from the mud.