Danube bleak by the building of dams across many of the rivers. Landlocked populations survive in small rivers and reservoirs, breeding in the small streams above the dams. The main Caspian Sea population has found ways of spawning below the dams. Overfishing and pollution in the Caspian Sea could impact on the Danube bleak but in 2008 the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species listed it as being of "Least concern". The Danube bleak feeds on small crustaceans, worms, molluscs, insect larvae, insects and small fish. Male Danube bleaks assemble in May to July at spawning sites in fast flowing streams with
Common bleak young bleak, though the pointed upward turned mouth of the bleak is already distinctive at young stages. Young roach and ruffe have a wider body and a short anal fin. The bleak occurs in Europe and Western Asia: north of the Caucasus, Pyrenees and Alps, and eastward toward the Volga basin and North-Western Turkey. It is absent from the major southern peninsulas and most of British Isles except southeast England. It is however locally introduced in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The bleak lives in great schools and feeds upon small molluscs, insects that fall in the water, insect larvae, worms,