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The Rainbow Trout
Description
Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) ia also known as,the redband trout. Oncorhynchus is Greek meaning "hook snout", and mykiss is the Kamchatkan name for rainbow trout. Rainbow trout have a characteristic salmon-like shape. Dark spots are clearly visible on the tail fin, which is slightly forked. The anal fin has 10-12 rays. The back is usually a dark olive color, shading to silvery white on the underside. The body is heavily speckled, and there is a pink to red stripe running lengthwise along the fish's sides.
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Life History
Rainbow trout is an anadromous, cool- to cold-water fish species. Although rainbows have been known to tolerate higher temperatures, they do best in areas where the water remains below 70°F. Eggs are laid in shallow nests dug out by the female in gravel riffles. The eggs require continuous oxygenation. At temperatures of about 55°F, the eggs will hatch approximately 21 days after they are laid. Rainbow trout are carnivores, but not exclusively piscivorous. They feed on a wide variety of prey including insects, crustaceans, mollusks and fish. Rainbows with access to the sea have been known to exceed 42 pounds. The record size for those confined to freshwater is 31.27 pounds.
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Distribution
Rainbow trout are native to North America west of the Rockies from Alaska into northwestern Mexico. Introductions have extended the range to include the Great Lakes region, south central Canada and portions of the Great Plains east of the Rockies, and southwestern Mexico. In Texas, high temperatures prevent reproduction or even over-summer survival in most areas, though some may survive in tailrace areas below large dams such as at Canyon Reservoir. The only self-sustaining population in the state exists in McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains.
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The Brown Trout
Description
The brown trout is a beautiful fish, similar in general shape to the salmon; the back is dark, the sides pale, and both are flecked with variable reddish spots that have pale borders, these spots are modified Xs when the fish is large. The belly is a creamy yellowish-white. Juveniles and immature adults can be distinguished as they have bluish-grey spots, and adult males have a strongly curved lower jaw.
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Life History
Brown trout may live for several years although, as with the Atlantic salmon, there is a high proportion of death of males after spawning and probably fewer than 20% of female kelts recover from spawning. The migratory forms grow to significantly larger sizes and may live longer. Brown trout are active both by day and by night and are opportunistic feeders. While in fresh water, the diet will frequently include invertebrates from the streambed, small fish, frogs, and insects flying near the water's surface. The high dietary reliance upon insect larvae, pupae, nymphs and adults is what allows trout to be a favoured target for fly fishing. Sea trout are especially fished for at night using wet flies. The spawning behaviour of brown trout is similar to that of the closely related Atlantic salmon. A typical female produces about 2000 eggs per kilogram (900 eggs per pound) of body weight at spawning. Brown trout rarely form hybrids, almost invariably infertile, with other species. One such example is the tiger trout, a hybrid with the brook trout.
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Habitat
Brown trout prefer water temperatures between 55 degrees and 65 degrees F. and are typically found in near shore waters. This wary fish can be taken more readily in early morning and twilight hours. Light line is in order using conventional lures or natural baits. Shore fishing methods are similar to the rainbow trout.
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Distribution
The brown trout is normally considered to be native to Europe and Asia but the natural distribution of the migratory forms may be, in fact, circumpolar. There are also landlocked populations far from the oceans, for example in Greece and Estonia. The fish is not considered to be endangered although, in some cases, individual stocks are under various degrees of stress mainly through habitat degradation, overharvest and artificial propagation leading to introgression.
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The Brook Trout
Description
The brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is a species of fish in the salmon family. In many parts of its range, it is also known as the speckled trout. The brook trout is of dark green to brown basic colouration with a distinctive marbled pattern (called vermiculations) of lighter shades across the flanks and back and extending at least to the dorsal fin, and often to the tail. There is a distinctive sprinkling of red dots, surrounded by blue haloes, along the flank. The belly and lower fins are reddish in colour, the latter with white leading edges. Often the belly, particularly of the males, becomes very red or orange when the fish are spawning. The species reaches a maximum recorded length of 86 cm (33 in) and a maximum recorded weight of 9.4 kg (21 lb). It can reach at least seven years of age, with reports of 15-year-old specimens observed in California habitats to which the species has been introduced.
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Life History
Individuals normally spend their entire life in fresh water, but some may spend up to three months at sea in the spring, not straying more than a few kilometres from the river mouth. The fish return upstream to spawn in the late summer or autumn. The female constructs a depression in a location in the stream bed, sometimes referred to as a "red", where groundwater percolates upward through the gravel. One or more males approaches the female, fertilising the eggs as the female expresses them. The eggs are slightly more dense than water. The female then buries the eggs in a small gravel mound. The eggs hatch in approximately 100 days.
A potamodromous population of brook trout native to Lake Superior, which run into inflowing rivers to spawn, are called "coasters". Coasters tend to be larger than most other populations of brook trout, often reaching 2 to 3 kg in size. Many coaster populations have been severely damaged by overfishing and by habitat alterations, especially by the construction of hydro-electric power dams, on their inflowing streams. In Ontario and Michigan, efforts are under way to restore and recover coaster populations.
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Habitat
The Brook Trout prefers cool, clear waters of high purity and a narrow pH range in lakes, rivers, and streams, being sensitive to poor oxygenation, pollution, and changes in pH caused by environmental effects such as acid rain. Its diverse diet includes crustaceans, frogs and other amphibians, insects, molluscs, smaller fish, and even small aquatic mammals such as voles. It provides food for seabirds and suffers attack by lampreys. The brook trout is a short-lived species, rarely surviving beyond four or five years in the wild.
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Distribution
The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. Some brook trout are anadromous. Though commonly considered a trout, the brook trout is actually a char, along with lake trout, bull trout, Dolly Varden and the Arctic char. It is native to a wide area of eastern North America but increasingly confined to higher elevations southward in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia, Canada from the Hudson Bay basin east, the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence system, and the upper Mississippi River drainage as far west as eastern Iowa.
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The Pink Salmon
Description
Pink salmon or humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) (from the Russian gorbuscha) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific salmon. Pink salmon are bright silver fish when they live in the ocean, and their coloring changes to pale grey on the back with yellowish white belly when spawning. They have two dorsal fins including one adipose fin, dark coloration of the mouth and gums, large oval shaped black spots on the tail and back and 13-17 rays in their anal fins. The males develop a pronounced humped back during spawning, hence their nickname "humpies". Pink salmon are the smallest of the Pacific salmon with an average weight of five to six pounds and length of 30 inches.
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Life History
Pink salmon in their natural range have a strict two year life cycle, thus odd- and even-year populations do not interbreed. The biggest one ever caught was 13.1 pounds. Adult pink salmon enter spawning streams from the ocean, usually returning to the water course, or race, where they originated. Spawning occurs between late June and mid-October. Pink salmon spawn in coastal streams and some longer rivers, and may spawn in the intertidal zone or at the mouth of streams if hyporheic freshwater is available. The female fish lays her eggs in gravel and digs a trough-shaped nest called a redd with her tail. Once she has laid her eggs and they have been fertilized by the male's milt, she covers them. The female lays between 1000 to 2000 eggs in several clutches within the redd, often fertilized by different males. Females guard their redds until death, which comes within days after spawning. In dense populations a major source of mortality for embryos is superposition of redds by later-spawning fish. The eggs hatch from December to February depending on the water temperature, and the young emerge from the gravel during March and April and quickly migrate downstream to estuaries at about one-quarter gram. They return to freshwater in the summer or autumn of the following year as two year old adults. Pink and chum salmon can interbreed to form hybrid salmon in nature. That is called the miko salmon, but the hybrids are not fertile.
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Habitat
Adult pink salmon are cold-water fish with a preferred temperature range of 5.6 to 14.6 °C, an optimal temperature of 10.1 °C, and an upper lethal temperature of 25.8 °C. The pink salmon is native to Pacific and arctic coastal waters from the Sacramento River in northern California to the Mackenzie River in Canada; and to the west from the Lena River in Siberia to Korea. Populations in Asia occur as far south as Hondo Island in Japan. Pink salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes; this is the only location where the pink salmon have been successfully introduced into an entirely fresh water environment.
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Distribution
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, fish traps were used to supply fish for commercial canning and salting. The industry expanded steadily until 1920. During the 1940s and 1950s, Pink Salmon populations declined drastically. Fish traps were prohibited in Alaska in 1959. Now most pink salmon are taken with purse seines and drift or set gillnets. Populations, and harvests, increased rapidly after the mid 1970s and have been at record high numbers since the 1980s.
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The King Salmon
Description
The Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is a Pacific Ocean salmon and is variously known as the king salmon, tyee salmon, Columbia River salmon, black salmon, chub salmon, hook bill salmon, winter salmon, Spring Salmon and blackmouth. The Chinook salmon is blue-green on the back and top of the head with silvery sides and white ventral surfaces. It has black spots on its tail and the upper half of its body; its mouth is dark gray. Adult fish average 33 to 36 inches (840 to 910 mm), but may be up to 58 inches (1.47 meters) in length; they average 10 to 50 pounds (5 to 25 kg), but may reach 130 pounds (50 kg). The current sport caught World Record is 97 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in May 1985 by Les Anderson in the Kenai River (Kenai, Alaska). The commercial catch world record is 126 pounds caught near Petersburg, Alaska in a fish trap in 1949.
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Life History
Chinook Salmon are typically divided into "races" with "spring chinook", "summer chinook", and "fall chinook" being most common. Races are determined by the timing of adult entry into fresh water. King salmon may spend between one to eight years in the ocean before returning to their home rivers to spawn, though the average is three to four years. Chinook prefer larger and deeper water to spawn in than other species of salmon and can be found on the spawning redds (nests) from September through to December. Fry and parr (young fish) usually stay in freshwater from twelve to eighteen months before travelling downstream to estuaries, where they remain as smolts for several months.
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Habitat
First, salmon need to be able to have ample food resources, such as: planktonic diatoms, copepods, kelps, seaweeds, jellyfish, and starfish. Second, in order for salmon to be able to spawn, they must have a healthy habitat that is sheltered by eelgrass and other seaweeds. These sea plants camouflage eggs so that they are protected from predators.Third, with regards to ocean habitat, it is essential that freshwater-breeding salmon migrate from stream beds to the oceans and have the ability to grow into adult fish. This is because these adult fish acquire the strength that is needed to travel back upstream, escape predators, and reproduce before dying. Fourth, it is important that the bodies of water are clean and oxygenated. Finally, salmon need other salmon to survive so that they can reproduce and pass on their genes in the wild. With some populations being endangered, it is important that precautions are taken to ensure that salmon are not being overfished and that habitat is being protected including appropriate management of hydro-electric and irrigation projects.
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Distribution
Chinook salmon range from San Francisco Bay in California to north of the Bering Strait in Alaska, and the arctic waters of Canada and Russia (the Chukchi Sea ), including the entire Pacific coast in between. Populations occur in Asia as far south as the islands of Japan. In Russia, they are found in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.
The most significant spawning runs are in the Columbia River, Rogue River, and Puget Sound. Within this range there are probably more than 1,000 spawning populations, yet the species is the least abundant salmon in North America.
In 1967, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources planted Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to control the alewife, an invasive species of nuisance fish from the Atlantic Ocean. Alewives were then 90% of the biota in these lakes. Coho salmon had been planted the year before and the program was a success. Chinook and Coho salmon grew heavy on alewives and used tributaries to these lakes for spawning. After this success, Chinook were planted in the other Great Lakes.
The species has also established itself in the waters of the Patagonia in South America, where escaped hatchery fish have colonized rivers and established stable spawning runs. The species was introduced into New Zealand waters at the end of the nineteenth century, where it flourished. It has established spawning runs in the Hurunui, Waimakariri, Rangatata and particularly the Rakaia rivers. While other salmon were introduced into New Zealand, only Chinook (or Quinant as it is known locally in NZ) has established important pelagic runs.
The Yukon River has the longest freshwater migration route of any salmon, over 3,000 kilometers from its mouth in the Bering Sea to spawning grounds upstream of Whitehorse, Yukon. A fish ladder has been constructed around the Schwatka Lake hydroelectric dam in Whitehorse to allow the passage of Chinook salmon.
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The Steelhead
Description
Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) belong to the family Salmonidae which includes all salmon, trout, and chars. The average length of a steelhead is 20-30 inches. A mature steelhead usually weighs 8-9 pounds but has been known to reach 36 pounds. The body is somewhat compressed with a rounded snout and a large mouth. The spawning male experiences minor changes to its head, mouth and color. Stream residents and spawners are darker with more intense coloring and lake residents are lighter, brighter and more silvery. They range from steel-blue, blue-green, yellow-green to almost brown. Steelhead tend to be more silvery. All have a number of small black spots. The coloring chamges drastically over the whole of its range.
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Life History
Steelhead are the anadromous form of rainbow trout, a salmonid species native to western North America and the Pacific Coast of Asia. The term anadromous refers to fish species born in the stream that migrate to the ocean for their adult phase. Steelhead are similar to some Pacific salmon in their life cycle and ecological requirements. They are born in fresh water streams, where they spend their first 1-3 years of life. They then emigrate to the ocean where most of their growth occurs. After spending between one to four growing seasons in the ocean, steelhead return to their native fresh water stream to spawn. Unlike Pacific salmon, steelhead do not necessarily die after spawning and are able to spawn more than once.
The length of time it takes for eggs to hatch is heavily dependent on water temperature. In hatcheries with carefully controlled conditions, steelhead eggs hatch after 30 days at a temperature of 51° F. The optimal temperature for egg incubation is between 44 and 50° F (7-10° C).
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Habitat
Steelhead habitat requirements change as they go through different life phases. Adult steelhead need to have access to their natal streams. This means that streams must be free of barriers to migration, as the majority of spawning occurs in the upper reaches of tributaries. Adults also need access to spawning gravel in areas free of heavy sedimentation with adequate flow and cool, clear water. Steelhead utilize gravel that is between 0.5 to 6 inches in diameter, dominated by 2 to 3 inch gravel. Escape cover such as logs, undercut banks, and deep pools for spawning adults is also important.
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Distribution
In North America, steelhead are found in Pacific Ocean drainages from southern California through Alaska. In Asia, they are found on the east and west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, with a few populations on the mainland. In the state of California, known populations occur in coastal rivers and streams from Malibu Creek in Los Angeles County up to the Smith River near the Oregon border, and in the Sacramento River system.
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