Two colour forms exist. The wild form is a greyish-olive colour on the back and upper sides, paling to silver on the sides and a silvery-white on the belly. Both anal and pelvic fins are a reddish colour. The ornamental variety of orfe has a bright orange back, silvery-orange sides and belly, and bright orange tail and dorsal fin. These two colour morphs are known as 'silver orfe' and 'golden orfe' respectively. Golden orfe populations may revert to the wild colouration over time (McDowall, 2000).
Principal source: McDowall, R. M. 2000. The Reed field guide to New Zealand freshwater fishes. Auckland, Reed.
FishBase, 2004. Species profile Leuciscus idus Ide
Compiler: IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group
Updates with support from the Overseas Territories Environmental Programme (OTEP) project XOT603, a joint project with the Cayman Islands Government - Department of Environment
Review: Dr. David Rowe, NIWA (National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research). Hamilton New Zealand.
Publication date: 2010-10-04
Recommended citation: Global Invasive Species Database (2024) Species profile: Leuciscus idus. Downloaded from http://iucngisd.org/gisd/species.php?sc=613 on 29-11-2024.
Copp et al, (2005) Risk identification and assessment of non-native freshwater fishes presents a conceptual risk assessment approach for freshwater fish species that addresses the first two elements (hazard identification, hazard assessment) of the UK environmental risk strategy. The paper presents a few worked examples of assessments on species to facilitate discussion. The electronic Decision-support tools- Invasive-species identification tool kits that includes a freshwater and marine fish invasives scoring kit are made available on the Cefas (Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science) page for free download (subject to Crown Copyright (2007-2008)).