Common Barbel

B. barbus is native throughout northern and eastern Europe, ranging north and east from the Pyrénées and Alps to Lithuania, Russia and the northern Black Sea basin. It is an adaptable fish which transplants well between waterways, and has become established as an introduced species in several countries including Scotland, Morocco and Italy. Although barbel are native to eastern flowing rivers in England between the Thames and Great Ouse they have historically been translocated to western flowing rivers, such as the River Severn. Its favoured habitats are the so-called barbel zones in fast-flowing rivers with gravel or stone bottoms, although it regularly occurs in slower rivers and has been successfully stocked in still waters. Barbel in the River Trent are also artificially stocked. Barbel are very abundant in some rivers, often seen in large shoals on rivers such as the Wye. Izaak Walton reported that there were once so many barbel in the Danube that they could be caught by hand, 'eight or ten load at a time' .

Adult B. barbus specimens can reach 1.2 m (4 ft) in length and 12 kg (26 lb) in weight, although it is typically found at smaller sizes (50–100 cm length, weight 1–3 kg). Adult barbel can live to over 20 years of age. Their sloping foreheads, flattened undersides, slender bodies and horizontally oriented pectoral fins are all adaptations for their life in swift, deep rivers, helping to keep them close to the riverbed in very strong flows. Juvenile fish are usually grey and mottled in appearance; adults are typically dark brown, bronze or grey in colour with a pale underside, with distinctively reddish or orange-tinged fins. The lobes of the tail are asymmetrical, the lower lobe being rounded and slightly shorter than the pointed upper lobe. Barbel are active fish and often travel long distances in quite short time periods. Individuals can move between 16 and 68 km in a year, with mean (average) daily movement between 26 and 139 m. Adults commonly feed at night, although they may feed during the daytime in the safety of deeper water or near bankside cover and underwater obstructions. Their underslung mouths make them especially well adapted for feeding on benthic organisms, including crustaceans, insect larvae and mollusks, which they root out from the gravel and stones of the riverbed. Barbel diets change as the fish develop from fry to juveniles and then to adults. …

The Barbel is a swete fysshe, but it is a quasy meete and perilous for mannys body Many authors have noted the highly toxic nature of barbel roe when eaten by humans, including Dame Juliana Berners and Charles David Badham. Badham relates the experience of Italian physician Antonio Gazius, who, he says, "took two boluses, and thus describes his sensations: 'At first I felt no inconvenience, but some hours having elapsed, I began to be disagreeably affected, and as my stomach swelled, and could not be brought down again by anise or carminatives, I was soon in a state of great depression and distress.' His countenance was pallid, like a man in a swoon, deadly coldness ensued, violent cholera and vomiting came after until the roe was passed, and then he became all right." The use of barbel roe as a poison is mentioned in Nostradamus Les Prophéties, century VII, 24 :

Despite the risks associated with eating barbel roe, several notable cookery authors have included recipes for barbel in their books. Mrs Beeton, for example, writes that they are in season in the winter months, and suggests simmering them with port and herbs. Also, in The Illustrated London Cookery Book by Frederick Bishop.