moderlieschen

English

Etymology

From German Moderlieschen, from or corresponding to Mutterlöschen, Mutterloseken, literally "motherless one(s)", because the eggs can withstand long exposure to air, stick to ducks and other birds, and be carried to ephemeral ponds, where they may hatch without adults present, leading to folk beliefs that the fish were motherless.

Noun

moderlieschen

1. Leucaspius delineatus, a species of freshwater fish found throughout temperate continental Europe.

   Synonym: sunbleak

   • 1963, Aleksandr Prokofʹevich Markevich, Parasitic Fauna of Freshwater Fish of the Ukrainian S.S.R.: (Parazitofauna Presnovodnykh Ryb USSR):

     Leucaspius delineatus (Heckel) The common moderlieschen is a small fish of no economic importance, living in the basins of many Ukrainian rivers. Body length: up to 7-8cm (usually less).

   • '1975, B. A. Whitton, River Ecology, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 226:

     […] numbers of eggs in ribbons (perch) or strings (the moderlieschen Leucaspius delineatus) which are entwined amongst submerged vegetation.

   • 1983, F. Martyshev, Pond Fisheries, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 366:

     To avoid lipoid degeneration in the trout liver young fish which contain less fat should be used. Fresh-water trash fish (bleak, ruff, gudgeon, loach, verkhovka or moderlieschen, minnow, etc.) are considered a better natural food, […]

   • 2012, Ian J. Winfield, Joe S. Nelson, Cyprinid Fishes: Systematics, biology and exploitation, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 144:

     The European moderlieschen, Leucaspius delineatus, which lays eggs in spirals or rings on plant stems, is aided by enlarged genital papillae.