Houting belongs to Salmonidae. It can grow to a length of over 50 cm and reach a weight of 2 kg. Houting is easily recognizable by its distinctive nose and adipose fin. Being an anadromous fresh water fish, houting migrates as a youngling, like other salmon-like fishes, away from the flowing towards the coastal waters, and comes back again as adult, sexually mature fish to its nursery waters. It spawns since the end of November until the beginning of December, over sand or gravel.

After intensive use in the fishery and due to the oxygen-wasting pollutions, houting was considered to have been extinct several years ago in Germany. The populations are supported nowadays via intensive stemming measures.

Houting larvae and baby fish feed primarily on zooplankton and later, as adults, on fly larvae, mussels, crabs and young fish. The North-Sea houting was the fish of the year 1999.