Needle fish are relatives of seahorses. Sea needle Who eats sea needles in the black sea

In salty seas and oceans, as well as freshwater reservoirs, you can find a very interesting fish, with a long and needle-thin body, and an elongated muzzle. Her body is covered with bone plates that look like a hexagon. The head is decorated with a small comb. Color can be completely different, and depends on the habitat. There are individuals of brown-green and red-brown colors, with many light transverse stripes. This is a fish - a needle, which can be a little more than 20 cm long and weighs 5 kg. Its life expectancy is 5 years.

Needle fish prefers shallow areas with lush vegetation. The sea needle, during the spawning period, can enter freshwater reservoirs. It is found in the same Dnieper, moreover, at a considerable distance from the sea. Freshwater fish do not change their habitat, and are constantly in the same reservoir. The needle feeds on bottom larvae, worms, crustaceans, plankton, and small fish. Her fry consume only plankton. The eyesight of the fish is very good, which helps it to quickly find food.

Spawns from May to June. During the mating season, the female lays her eggs not on seaweed, but in the male's bag, which is located on his tail. This is where fertilization takes place. In total, no more than 100 eggs are laid. At the same time, eggs from different females can be simultaneously in the male's bag. In total, during the mating season, the female can lay three portions of eggs, each with 20 eggs.

The eggs in the male's pouch do not come into contact with the external environment. The nutrition of the embryos is carried out at the expense of its blood. Fish larvae - needles are in the male's bag until August. After this period, the placenta with fry is separated from the bag and enters the water.

Needle fish can be found in the Black, Caspian, Azov Seas. Its dwarf form lives in salty bays. On the Volga, Dnieper and Terek there is a freshwater needle. There is also in the Kuibyshev reservoir. It is possible that freshwater fish enter large reservoirs from the lower reaches of rivers. This fact is confirmed by the fact that the needle appeared in the reservoirs of the Kuban.

The fish has no nutritional value. Its natural enemies are predatory fish.

Both, having a shell of bone plates around the body, belong to the same order of sticklebacks, in which there are two different groups (stickle-shaped and needle-shaped).

The needle-like ones are even distinguished by some scientists as an independent detachment: the fish of this group are so unique both in appearance and in structural features and in their biology (in particular, the breeding strategy). A photo of a needle fish shows a snake-like creature with an elongated tube-shaped snout.

We can recall several types of fish resembling a snake - eels, moray eels and needles. The latter are completely unique living creatures that are very close relatives, since they belong to the same needle family (Syngnathidae).

This article is about needles. All representatives of the needles have an elongated body with a long tail, a small (or absent) caudal fin. The snout, at the end of which there is a buzz-toothed mouth, is extended into a tube and serves to suck up food objects along with water. An enlarged photo of the needle fish makes it possible to consider the details of the structure of its head and snout.

The color of these fish is very diverse and may vary depending on the surrounding background of the habitat. There are needles red and purple, brown and bright green, gray with various spots and even almost white (coral inhabitants): more than one hundred and fifty species of these unusual fish have been described by scientists. The body length of adults varies in different species from 25 millimeters to 60 centimeters.

Habitat and biology features

Most needles live in warm waters, and the inhabitants of temperate seas are a very small number. Habitat - always a coastal zone with sandy soil and thickets of sea grass (zostera) or algae, and corals. Rare exceptions are a few pelagic species that are not tied to the coast. They even inhabit the open part of the Atlantic Ocean, for example, the Sargasso Sea.

A feature of the appearance of needle fish is that the needle fish practically does not have well-developed and noticeable fins, with the exception of the pectoral fins, which are the main motor organ of these original fish:

• The dorsal fin is small and strongly shifted towards the back of the body. It all consists only of soft rays, which oscillate in waves when the fish swims.
• The caudal fin is also small and usually laterally compressed.
• The size of the anal fin is so "microscopic" that it is almost invisible.
• There are no ventral fins at all.

Nutrition and reproduction

The tube-shaped snout of the needle acts on the principle of a pipette: prey with a stream of water is drawn into the mouth even from a distance of 40 millimeters. This happens at the moment when the fish puffs out its “cheeks”. Food is a variety of small planktonic crustaceans. The length of the snout in different species is different, which can be clearly seen in the photo.

Caring for offspring

Like all members of the Spine-like order, the needlefish takes care of its offspring, and nature has assigned this “honorable duty” to the male.

In most species of pipefish, males on the ventral part of the body (sometimes under the caudal peduncle) have special folds of skin that extend from the sides. Closing the edges, they form a kind of brood bag, the length of which is approximately one third of the length of the body of the fish.

Spawning is preceded by a very interesting and majestic courtship dance, which ends with the female wrapping around the male. It is in this position that the female lays eggs in a leathery bag on the male's stomach or (in the absence of a bag) in a special groove. Caviar is deposited in portions. The male fertilizes each portion. The serpentine needlefish does not have a bag, and in this species, the eggs attached to the abdomen are open and not protected by anything.

The eggs are kept in the father's pouch until the fry hatch. And even for some time after their birth, they live in this peculiar house. To release his cubs for a “walk”, the male bends his body upwards in the form of an arc, while the bag opens. When danger appears, the kids again rush into the bag to hide.

Variety of sea needles

The most numerous genus of these unique snake-like fish is the common pipefish (scientific name - Syngnathus). It unites approximately 50 species. In the waters of the Russian seas, representatives of this genus are found in the Black and Japan Seas. Some of them are often kept in aquariums: marine and freshwater. Aquarists consider the plump-cheeked Black Sea igloo to be the most interesting species, which can live not only in the salt water of the Black Sea, but enters rivers and lakes, where it has perfectly adapted to life in fresh water.

Puffy-cheeked Black Sea needle

Black Sea needle fish caught in lakes or reservoirs can be successfully kept in home freshwater aquariums. This is a small fish with a maximum length of up to 21 centimeters (usually up to 15) brown or greenish in color with light stripes across the body.

They reach sexual maturity at a length of about 10 centimeters. Males are larger compared to females. Their caudal peduncle is slightly flattened below. In this place there is a whitish brood chamber, where the female spawns.

Particular attention should be paid to the eyes of marine needles: they are convex, quite large and extremely mobile. Each eye is able to move completely independently of the other. It is this feature that allows the fish to successfully find their small food in the surrounding space.

How do they move and feed?

Fish needle moves smoothly. During the stop, it rests on the tail, which is a support, so it always touches either the ground or underwater plants. During the hunt, the body of the fish can bend in different directions so that the needle takes on very unusual and interesting poses.

In the search for food, vision plays a very important role: the pipefish constantly moves its large expressive eyes and finds small crustaceans, even if they hide somewhere.

Having noticed the prey, the fish freezes, in such a position that its proboscis is at a short distance from the victim. Then the needle quickly spreads its gill covers and makes a sharp movement of the head, sucking in water along with the prey. Needlefish can devote all their time to such a hunt and extract cyclops crustaceans even from under snags and stones.

How and what to feed in an aquarium

Due to the nature of nutrition, the right food is the main condition for the safe keeping of needles in aquariums. The optimal food is cyclops, which should always be present in the aquarium, because the fish take almost the whole day to hunt. You can cut the tubifex, but the fish will be reluctant to take it, perhaps due to the fact that it does not suit them.

Aquarists have noticed that in the absence of cyclops or small daphnia in the aquarium, needlefish quickly lose weight and then often die.

Primorsky sea needle

In the Yellow and Japan seas (including in the Russian waters of the Primorsky Territory), the sea needle (Syngnathus acusimilis) lives near the mainland coasts. It lives in shallow water in thickets of coastal vegetation, sometimes it is seen in freshened areas of river mouths.

The maximum length is 30 centimeters. The breeding season is greatly extended: from the beginning of June, when the water warms up to 12 degrees, and until September. But most often, spawning individuals can be found at a coastal water temperature of about 20 degrees. Like all needles, the father takes care of the offspring, carrying the developing eggs in his brood chamber. This chamber is located on the abdomen closer to the tail part of the body of the male and holds up to one and a half thousand eggs, each of which has a diameter of slightly more than 1 millimeter.

The fecundity of one female is about 500 eggs, so the male often takes eggs from 2-3 females, which they lay in turn.

The development of embryos continues for a month, by the end of which the length of the larvae reaches 1 centimeter or more. At this time, the juvenile leaves the brood chamber of its parent and starts an independent life. The seaside igloo fish feeds on various small crustaceans.

The Black Sea is a place of accumulation of living organisms that lead an aggressive lifestyle. Big predators eat small predators. How to survive in this world if nature has deprived you of sharp teeth, long spikes, poisonous tentacles? He did not come out with growth and strength, one has to rely on the ability to disguise himself among the environment. Today we will talk about a marine life that disguises itself as long sandy threads of algae. Sea needle is the hero of our story. Over time, evolution has made amazing changes with the body of the fish that allow it to exist in the aggressive underwater world.

Appearance

The needle fish got its name because of the disproportionately elongated body, resembling a needle or pike. The body is not compressed from the sides, with a detailed examination, the edges are visible. An igloo fish could also be called a floating pencil. The body has small dorsal and pectoral fins, and a small crest is located on the top of the head. The shape of the fins does not allow the needle to travel long distances.

A snout with a long nose and a small mouth. The color of the fish changes depending on the color of the external environment. In Anapa, on sandbanks, the needle has a light green, almost transparent outfit, if a current or a storm carries the fish to stone beaches, then the color becomes darker. The usual height of a floating pencil is 15 or 25 centimeters, the life time is about 8 - 10 years.

habits

As it became clear, the needle fish is not a champion swimmer, movement across the sea for the fish depends on underwater currents and waves. Therefore, the main goal when driving is a timely stop in a suitable place. To do this, you need to hook on seaweed with your tail. In the thickets of sea grass, the needle feels safe, and most importantly, there is plenty of your favorite delicacy - the smallest plankton or crustacean larvae. All the diversity, invisible to the human eye of organisms, the needle draws in through its small mouth at the tip of the muzzle. The dinner ritual is a favorite business of the sea needle, adults can drain larvae for up to 10 hours in a row.

The second most important occupation is reproduction. With the beginning of summer, when the sea off the coast of Anapa begins to warm up, needles prepare for breeding. To attract a female, the male performs certain body movements that the bride should like. After that, the couple is intertwined with long bodies. During close hugs, the female sea-pipe lays eggs in a special leather bag, which is available to the future father of the offspring. In the body compartment, fertilization and painstaking gestation of eggs takes place. After maturation of caviar, small needles can hide from danger in their father's backpack for some time. The marsupial feature of caring for offspring makes the sea needle a truly unique inhabitant of the waters.

Researchers of the marine flora of Anapa noticed that the needle has the ability to make sounds. If you hold a needle fish in your fist, you can feel the faint vibrations and quiet sound waves that the fish emits into the air. To date, scientists cannot establish why the marine life needed such a skill.

Where to see in Anapa

Not so long ago, all shallow water was a favorite habitat for needle fish. Today, due to the active development of the resort's embankments, the ecological state of the aquatic environment has changed. The consequences of human activity do not allow the needle to live quietly within the city. An igloo in Anapa can only be found on the secluded beaches of Vityazevo or the Bugaz Spit.

Needle, or needle fish - a family of marine, brackish and freshwater fish of the needle-shaped suborder of the stickleback order. The family includes approximately 232 species of fish, united in 52 genera. Of these, about 196 species belonging to 51 genera belong to needlefish and approximately 36 species belonging to the same genus. The chain-tailed pipefish from the Bahamas is, as it were, an intermediate link between pipefish and seahorses.

Needlefish lives mainly in the Black, Azov, Aral, Caspian and Baltic Seas. Scientists distinguish two types of these fish: serpentine and ordinary. The former are characterized by a very thin and long body, as well as the absence of caudal and pectoral fins. Common needlefish have fins. Among this species, subspecies are distinguished: thick-nosed and thin-nosed representatives.

A flock of needlefish hunts for small fish that swim closer to the surface of the water. Quite often, representatives of the igloos jump out of the water into the moonlight at night. But also sometimes the fish have to go deeper in order to get their own plankton.

The needle fish has a long, very thin body, with a long caudal peduncle, covered with hexagonal rings of bone plates. The snout is tubular and long (especially in the Caspian populations), there are scallops on its sides. Gill covers strongly convex and only anteriorly with a ridge. There is a weak comb on the top of the head. The dorsal fin is long and begins in front of the anus, the caudal fin is very small. Trunk belts 15-17, caudal 36-41. There are 7-9 bands under the dorsal fin.

The color of the body is greenish-brown or reddish-brown, with light transverse stripes in the middle of each band. The belly is whitish and the ventral keel is blackish. There are no spots on the dorsal fin. The needle fish grows slowly, reaching a length of 19 cm and a weight of 5 g at 5 years old. The age limit is 6 years, length up to 23 cm, weight up to 5 g.

Euryhaline species, can live in both fresh and salt waters. Keeps in thickets of aquatic plants. In the spring, sea needlefish enter rivers and lakes, sometimes rising to considerable distances (up to 900 km in the Dnieper). The freshwater form leads a non-water lifestyle in lakes, reservoirs and oxbow lakes, adhering to the same habitats throughout its life. Needlefish feed on small crustaceans, juveniles only on zooplankton, and adults on plankton, large crustaceans, insect larvae, and sometimes fish larvae and juveniles. In search of a victim, he navigates with the help of vision.

The breeding season for these, living on the Black Sea coast, takes place in April-July. All types of sea needles have a difficult breeding process. In males, in the lower part of the body, from the side of the peritoneum, there is a brood chamber, which consists of 2 folds of skin. After the mating dance, the female wraps herself around the body of the male and lays eggs in his bag, while the eggs are fertilized. These folds are bent, and eggs are hidden under them. When the skin converges, a bag is formed about a third of the length of the entire body. About 100 eggs can fit in such a bag.

The eggs are in the bag until the fry hatch from it, while they do not leave the father's bag for some more time. To release the fry, the male arches the body, the edges of the skin open, and the new generation is in the water. If the kids are in danger, they again climb into the bag to the caring father.

Kinds

The largest species of needlefish living in the Azov and Black Seas is the common needlefish. The length of her body is about 46 centimeters. This species is found on the coast of Europe from Morocco to Norway. In addition, common needles are found in the Mediterranean Sea, near the British Isles, but they are not in the Baltic. These fish live in coastal areas and near river mouths among a large number of marine thickets. On the body and tail of the common needle fish there are dark stripes.

The Black Sea chubby needle-fish differs from other needles living in the Black and Azov Seas by a short cylindrical snout. This species lives off the coast of southern Europe. It is also found in Africa, in the Caspian, Black and Azov seas. These fish prefer to stay at a depth of no more than 5 meters in waters with a muddy or sandy bottom. In addition to the sea, plump-cheeked needle fish live in rivers and lakes, as well as in the Volga reservoir. The average body length is 21 centimeters.

The thin-nosed needle-fish has a less wide range - it is found in the Black, Azov and Adriatic seas. This type of marine needles is quite large - individuals reach a length of about 38.5 centimeters. In fresh water, thin-winged needlefish are not found.

The Black Sea spiny needle, about 11 centimeters long, lives only in the Black and Azov Seas at a depth of about 70 meters. A striped or thick-nosed needle-fish about 30 centimeters long also lives only in the Azov and Black Seas. And a close relative - the seaside needle - lives in the Sea of ​​​​Japan, it can also enter the mouths of rivers.

The sea awl or serpentine fish-needle lives in the Black, Mediterranean Seas and on the Atlantic coast. This species differs from the others in that in males the brood pouch is open, it is not protected by skin folds. Therefore, the eggs are attached to the belly itself. The body is thin and long. These fish do not have tail, anal or pectoral fins. The color is most often greenish-yellow or yellow-gray with brown speckles. And at the time of spawning, the body at the sea awl is covered with blue spots and stripes. This species lives not only in the seas, but also swims in the mouths of rivers.

Needlefish in the aquarium

Of domestic freshwater fish, the plump-cheeked Black Sea needle is the most interesting object for keeping in an aquarium. They are distinguished by a peculiar body shape, very interesting behavior, and an unusual way of reproduction. This species is characterized by high euryhaline. They enter the rivers from the sea and rise along them for 500 km from the mouth or more. In this case, there are cases of penetration of needles into floodplain reservoirs. The lacing of these reservoirs from the riverbed makes the needles the inhabitants of purely fresh water.

It is better to keep needles separately, although they get along well with any small fish. The aquarium should be tall and not very large. It should be densely planted with plants, otherwise the needles will hide in the thickets, which makes it difficult to observe them, they can live in any water, but they do not tolerate a sharp transition to soft water. The main condition for the successful maintenance of needles is proper feeding, since their mouth opening is small, then it is necessary to feed needles with small crustaceans, best of all cyclops. Food must be constantly present in the varium. The cut tubifex needles are reluctant to tug, and apparently it does not suit them. Without cyclops and small daphnia, fish quickly lose weight and soon die.

Needle movements are smooth. When stopping, the tail serves as a fulcrum, all the time it touches the ground or water plants. When catching food, the needles can bend in any direction, taking the most bizarre poses. Moving their rather large eyes, they find small crustaceans, wherever they hide. In this case, the proboscis stops at a certain distance from the victim, the needle freezes, then sharply pushes the gill covers, a short movement of the head, and the crustacean is sucked with water into the mouth opening. Needles can do such hunting all day long, extracting individual cyclops even from under stones.

Recipes

Needlefish on a vegetable pillow.

Ingredients: two fish, three carrots, seventy grams of vegetable oil, six onions, eight tomatoes, salt, red hot pepper and paprika to taste.

First, the fish must be cut. To do this, cut off the head and tail, remove the fins, clean the insides, wash and cut into portions. Thus, there should be only eight pieces. Then vegetable oil is poured into the pan, the needle fish will be fried there. How to cook further, we will now consider. So, the fish is fried on all sides until golden brown. Then proceed to the preparation of a vegetable pillow. To do this, grate the carrots, it will serve as a substrate. Next, cut the onions and tomatoes into rings. Carrots and onions are sent to the pan and stew for several minutes. Separately fry the tomatoes, adding a little water.

A layer of onions with carrots is laid out in a large pan, then tomatoes and a needle fish is placed on top, the recipes for which we will consider. At the same time, each piece is sprinkled with hot pepper. Then the fish is covered with vegetables in the opposite order. Cover the pan with a lid and put on fire, simmer for twenty minutes, sprinkle with more salt and paprika to taste. The finished dish is laid out on portioned plates and served at the table. The taste of the product is very interesting.

French soup Bouillabaisse.

This dish is the most popular among Marseille sailors. It includes needle fish, the recipes for which are very diverse, as well as lobsters and other seafood.

Ingredients: one kilogram of needle fish, half a kilogram of salmon fillet, stingray or paw-paw, two hundred grams of squid, two hundred grams of shrimp, one hundred grams of mussels, one hundred grams of scallops, two onions, six cloves of garlic, one can of tomatoes in their own juice or three fresh tomatoes, as well as two hundred grams of dry white wine, two stalks of celery, two onion-po rhea, six bay leaves, zest of one orange, half a bunch of herbs, black pepper and spices to taste.

First, needle fish, the recipes for which are very simple, salmon or other fish are washed and poured with cold water, put on a boil over a small fire. Meanwhile, chopped onions, crushed garlic, crushed tomatoes are fried in vegetable oil in a cauldron, adding white wine. Then strained broth is added.

Needlefish belong to the needlefish suborder, which includes marine needlefish, brackish and freshwater needlefish. In total, there are 196 of their species, which, according to various characteristics, are divided into 51 genera.

Description

In adulthood, needle fish can be 2.5 ... 60 cm long. They have a very elongated body and head, at the end of which there is a tubular snout. There are no fins on the belly, on the tail it is small or also absent. The fish is also distinguished by a long and flexible tail, which can cling to underwater algae.

The color of needlefish is very variable. The body of a long-snouted needle fish can be red, purple, yellow, brown, green, gray with spots, white. Some of them are able to adjust their color to the surrounding conditions.

habitats

Needlefish can be found in the coastal zones of the seas in temperate latitudes and in the tropics. Most often, needle fish lives in areas near sandy shores, where there are underwater thickets of algae and corals. There are some species of fish that prefer to spend their entire lives in the water column. These include, for example, the Black Sea needlefish and fish that emerged from the Sargasso Sea and are found far from the coast in the Atlantic Ocean.

Nutrition

The needle fish feeds rather monotonously. In its diet, most of all there are small planktonic crustaceans. Thanks to its tubular snout, it simply draws them into itself when they inadvertently approach it less than 4 cm.

reproduction

This process in needlefish is complex. Caring for the offspring of this species of fish is entrusted to males. Most of their representatives, from below the body, closer to the tail section, have a special "brood bag" in which they hatch eggs. The latter is added in portions by females to the bag and is immediately fertilized.

The pouch of a river or sea needle fish is distinguished by a large relative length and is located longitudinally along the body of the fish. It has a central longitudinal slot and two side flaps. The latter can burrow and isolate the embryos completely from the influence of some factors from the external environment for the period of gestation.

Fishing for needlefish

The usual season for catching needlefish is April-October - the period when it comes in schools to areas close to the coast. Although there are exceptions: for example, plump-cheeked needlefish in areas near the coast of Crimea can come across throughout the warm winter.

The most common gear for sea igloo fish is float gear. Usually these are spinning rods 2.7 ... 4.0 m long, with a test of 20-60 g, with a fast or ultra-fast action.

They are equipped with spinning reels, thin main line about 0.25 mm in diameter. The latter is better without color and not visible in the water.

Catching a needle fish is required with a leash, which is made from a monofilament 0.12 ... 0.20 mm and half a meter or more in length. It is better to set thinner, this increases the number of bites and your catch. But, if large individuals come across, then the leashes are often torn.

A sliding float is placed on the main line, having a length of 20 ... 40 cm and a load reaching 15 g. The float must have a bright, noticeable antenna from afar. A bulk float is very popular with fishermen, less often they use a floating bombard.

It has proven itself well in catching needle fish and braided line as the main line on spinning. Suitable 0.15…0.17 mm. The float or bombard must be selected strictly for your spinning test - this will facilitate the fishing process itself. If a bulk float is used, then it is filled with water so as to have zero buoyancy.

The equipment is equipped with only one hook, having a size according to our classification No. 2.5 ... No. 5. It is better if it is red or close to it.

They catch igloo fish for gerbil, nereis, shrimp meat, raw chicken breast, salmon fillet. Often, pieces of meat from the needle fish itself turn out to be an unsurpassed bait. They are small, do not exceed half a centimeter.

Places where needlefish go, usually with a depth of 5 meters or more. It is very rare in smaller areas. When needlefish are attacked by some kind of predator, you can see whole flocks of them jumping out of the water. This may be a sign by which you can find a catchy place.

The process of fishing for igloo fish is reminiscent of pseudo-fly fishing. Tackle with, for example, a bulk float is thrown away from the shore or boat to places where potential prey is located. Then, with a rod, they jerk it towards themselves, dragging the float along the surface, and behind it the leash with the bait. The fish are attracted to the sound and attack the bait by swallowing it in their mouths.

An exotic way to catch needlefish

In New Guinea, either due to the lack of modern gear, or out of old habit, needle fish are caught on ... cobwebs.

For example, fishermen on Santa Catalina Island in the Solomon Islands are looking for cobwebs before they start fishing. Not simple, but special, with good strength, with an intricate weave of threads. Fishing line, rods, hooks are not used at all. A twisted web (as bait) is hung from a flying kite and that's it.

A web bait, suspended from below under the kite, flies above the surface of the sea and looks like an insect fluttering over it. The fisherman launches it, of course, over that section of water, under which the sought-after prey is hiding.

The needle fish reacts to the poutine bait, attacks it and gets stuck in it with large scales and sharp teeth. This causes the kite to fall; the fisherman sees this and begins to pull the prey towards him.

Needle fish in cooking

Needlefish meat is harmless to humans and very tasty. The fish has a characteristic feature - it has green bones. The broth from it is always with a pistachio tint, but not because of these bones, but because of the special bile pigment biliverdin, which is the source of the greenish color of fish bones.

Useful properties of needle fish: fish meat is rich in iron, phosphorus, iodine, omega-3 fatty acids, etc. substances and trace elements. In the pluses of fish, its wide distribution and relatively low price, a small number of bones.

Needle fish dishes

Fish-needle baked

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush it with oil on top. The gutted and cleaned fish is folded into a ring, laying its long tail in the jaws, and put on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with spices, salt, sprinkle with vegetable oil.

A baking sheet with fish is placed in an oven already heated to 180 ° C. 20 minutes. baked.

Needle fish scale

The fish is cleaned, gutted, filleted. The resulting strips of meat are rolled up like a roll, stabbed with a toothpick so that they do not fall apart. 20 sec. fried using olive oil. Toothpicks are pulled out, an olive is placed in the middle of the rolls, which is previously stuffed with lemon.

Cut the onion into rings and a lot. Line them with the bottom of the pan, moistened with vegetable oil. The previously obtained rolls with olives are placed on top. Salt, pepper, sprinkle with herbs (rosemary, marjoram). Top with a layer of grated cold butter.

Stew the resulting 20 minutes, closing the pan with a lid.

Dried needle fish

Carcasses of fish (not peeled) roll in salt and for 20 minutes. leave. The following options are possible:

• hang the fish for half a day with their heads down; then try whether it is ready;
• lay the fish on newspapers and let it hang up to half an hour on each side; clean for 2 days in the refrigerator; the fish should be ready by then;
• wrap the fish with a canvas cloth and place it in the refrigerator for a day; take out, unfold, lay out newspapers on top; after 0.5 ... 1 hour the fish is ready for beer.

Needle fish sprats

Medium-sized fish are gutted, the tail and head are removed. Cut the carcasses into pieces 5-6 cm long. They are stacked more tightly in a narrow pan in columns and poured with vegetable oil 1 cm above the pieces protruding from above.

The pan is put on the smallest fire, covered with a lid and up to 3 hours. put out.

Smoked needle fish

Pour onion peel with water and 20 minutes. brew. A dark brown liquid is obtained. After cooling, it is filtered.

Butcher needle fish, gutting, cutting off heads, washing. Placed in a container and poured with liquid, to which salt (2 tbsp with a slide) and liquid smoke (5 tbsp) are first added.

The fish is left in the air in a cool place for 3 days, then kept in the refrigerator for the same amount of time. After they are taken out, washed, for 2 ... 3 hours. hang up. It turns out better than hot smoked needle fish. Store stock in the refrigerator.