Biology

Gizani is a small-bodied cyprinid. It usually lives up to three years. It reaches a maximum length of 10-12 centimetres, but most fish found in the wild are 3-5 cm long. It weighs only a few grams. Its colour is silvery grey, darker at the back and lighter at the abdomen.

The fish is very tolerant to low winter water temperatures (~10 °C), as well as high summer (~30 °C) temperature conditions. It prefers slow running waters and usually hides near the banks, under rocks or roots of plants, or amongst algae.

Gizani exhibits an opportunistic feeding behaviour, as it feeds on a great variety of food items. Its diet comprises mostly plant (algae, aquatic plants), and less, animal material (aquatic invertebrates and insect larvae).

Reproduction has also an opportunistic character in gizani. It reproduces serially (i.e., the same individual spawns more than once in a reproductive season) in spring and at the beginning of summer. The duration of the spawning season differs, depending on the biotope and the year. Usually in biotopes with not much water (like the Apolakkia streams), as well as in the rest of the streams during dry years, gizani's reproductive period is prolonged until even the end of summer.
The prolonged reproductive season possibly reflects a biological attempt by the species to overcome the adverse environmental conditions and/or the low density of the population.

Based on the large numbers of larvae and juveniles found in the wild towards the end of spring and in the beginning of each summer, gizani does not seem to face any serious breeding bottleneck. Thus, captive breeding and subsequent stocking actions are not recommended as a principal conservation tool for this species. The main threat to all gizani population is the loss of typical habitats, because of water abstraction and drought.