Date:Tue 5/21/24
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today's fish of the day is the brown trout!
The brown trout, also called the sea trout, scientific name Salmo trutta, is well known for their widespread range, and multiple ecotypes. Brown trout live in oceans, lakes, and rivers alike, helping with their wide domain. The native range of the brown trout is across most of Europe, Western Asia, and across some countries of Northern Africa. More specifically, from as far north as Norway, and offshoots of the White sea in Russia And their southern limit is the Atlas mountains of Northern Africa. Particularly concentrated in Western Europe and England, it has gained them the nickname European Trout.
However, brown trout have also been introduced outside of their natural range, originally this was done because they are stable and self sufficient, and the hope was to allow fishing of them recreationally. Introduced into: Tasmania, The Himalayas, the Indian Ocean, South Africa, Newfoundland, and across rivers in America This has since hugely backfired. These fish are far more aggressive than other trout species, competing with native trout species, salmon, smaller fish, and any other fish with similar diets. Despite this, they are beloved by fishers.
The diet of the brown trout is best described as whatever fits in their mouths. Consisting of small invertebrates when they're still fry and juvenile, mostly bugs exist on the surface of the water, and eggs they can find. As brown trout get larger they will eat anything they can catch: frogs, smaller fish, crustaceans, and other brown trout. This is part of why they are such an issue for native fishes, as they are particularly aggressive for trout, both competing for food sources, and predating them once large enough. They can reach sizes of 15-22 inches in length on this diet, larger than many other native fish in the waters they're invading.
Ecotypes are based on what area these fish are living in, the three leading ones being a riverine ecotype, called river trout, a lacustrine ecotype, called lake trout, and anadromous ecotype, which live in seas or oceans, and migrate up rivers to spawn. All of these ecotypes migrate for spawning, however ones that already live in freshwater will simply move to freshwater areas that they were also spawned in to have their children. Visually, they can range from silvery to shades of red and brown, occasionally being confused with brook trout, or Atlantic salmon
Everyone have a wonderful Tuesday, and Happy Birthday to PJ!