Yellowfin Baikal Sculpin

(Cottocomephorus grewingki), a fish of the family of Baikal Cottidae of the order of Periformes. The body is scaleless and may attain a length of 13 cm and a weight of 15-20 g. It is found only in Lake Baikal, where it lives in schools at depths of up to 300 m. It spawns on rocky ground near the shore, laying 900-2,400 eggs. After the spawning period, the eggs are protected by the males, most of which thereafter die. The fish feed on planktonic crustaceans and also on their young and the young of other fish. They are commercially important, as well as serving as a source of food for seals and other Baikal fish, such as the omul (Coregonus migratorius) and the grayling (Thymallus arcticus).