Translations:AY Honors/Fishes/Answer Key/72/en

The fish presented here are native to the United States and Canada.

Brook Trout

Salvelinus fontinalis

Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)

Where found: The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. Some brook trout are anadromous. 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.

Description: The brook trout is of dark green to brown basic coloration 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 color, 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.

Diet: Its diverse diet includes crustaceans, frogs and other amphibians, insects, molluscs, smaller fish, and even small aquatic mammals such as voles.

Reproduction: Individuals normally spend their entire life in fresh water, but some — colloquially called "salters" or "sea run" — may spend up to three months at sea in the spring, not straying more than a few kilometers 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 "redd", where groundwater percolates upward through the gravel. One or more males approaches the female, fertilizing 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.

Rainbow Trout

{{Species id | common_name = Rainbow Trout | latin_name = Oncorhynchus mykiss | image =Oncorhynchus mykiss mid res 150dpi.jpg | caption = | description = The rainbow trout are unusual in that there are two forms which sometimes share the same habitat. The anadromous (sea-going) form called "steelhead" migrate to the ocean, though they must return to fresh water to reproduce. The freshwater form is called "rainbow trout", based on the broad red band along their sides. Steelhead are exactly the same species as rainbow trout. However, the difference is anadromy. After going to sea, their color changes, including loss of the red band. They stay at sea for 1-4 years, and return to fresh water to spawn. Rainbows stay in fresh water their whole lives. Rainbows and steelhead occur in well-oxygenated lakes and streams where the temperature normally doesn't rise above 12°C in summer.