Rutilus heckelii explained

Rutilus heckelii is a species of roach, a genus in the family Cyprinidae. This species occurs in freshened areas of Black and Azov Seas, entering the Don, Kuban, Dnipro, Dnister and rarely Danube drainages.^[1]

Newer research, however, suggests that R. heckelii is part of a more widely distributed species of roach, whose range extends to Siberia. The proper name of that species is Rutilus lacustris.^[2]

In Russia, other countries of the former Soviet Union and parts of Eastern Europe, this and related species of roach are commonly air-dried and salted to create a popular beer snack, known as 'taran' or 'taranka', after the Russian word for this fish species, 'тарань'.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Rutilus heckelii. FishBase. 20 Dec 2021. 19 August 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130819141428/http://https/. dead.
2. Levin, B.A., Simonov, E.P., Ermakov, O.A., Levina, M.A., Interesova, E.A., Kovalchuk, O.M., Malinina, Y.A., Mamilov, N.S., Mustafayev, N.J., Pilin, D.V., Pozdeev, I.V., Prostakov, N.I., Roubenyan, H.R., Titov, S.V. & Vekhov, D.A. (2017): Phylogeny and phylogeography of the roaches, genus Rutilus (Cyprinidae), at the Eastern part of its range as inferred from mtDNA analysis. Hydrobiologia, 788: 33–46.