Rainbow trout

The rainbow trout is a trout and species of salmonid native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. Adult fish are distinguished by a broad reddish stripe along the lateral line, from gills to the tail, which is most vivid in breeding males. Wild-caught and hatchery-reared forms of this species have been transplanted and introduced for food or sport in at least 45 countries and every continent except Antarctica.

About Rainbow trout in brief

The rainbow trout is a trout and species of salmonid native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The species was originally named by German naturalist and taxonomist Johann Julius Walbaum in 1792 based on type specimens from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia. Adult fish are distinguished by a broad reddish stripe along the lateral line, from gills to the tail, which is most vivid in breeding males. Wild-caught and hatchery-reared forms of this species have been transplanted and introduced for food or sport in at least 45 countries and every continent except Antarctica. Introductions to locations outside their native range in the United States, Southern Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South America have damaged native fish species. Introduced populations may affect native species by preying on them, out-competing them, transmitting contagious diseases, or hybridizing with closely related species and subspecies. Some local populations of specific subspecies, or in the case of steelhead, distinct population segments, are listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Subspecies of Oncorhynchus mykiss are listed below as described by fisheries biologist Robert J. Behnke. Resident freshwater rainbow trout adults average between 1 and 5 lb in riverine environments, while lake-dwelling and anadromous forms may reach 20 lb. Adult forms are generally green with heavy black spotting over the length of the body.

The steelhead is the official state fish of Washington. The name of the genus is from the Greek onkos and rynchos, in reference to the hooked jaws of males in the mating season. Sir John Richardson, a Scottish naturalist, named a specimen of the species Salmo gairdneri in 1836 to honor Meredith Gairdner, a Hudson’s Bay Company surgeon at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River who provided Richardson with specimens. In 1855, William P. Gibbons, the curator of Geology and Mineralogy at the California Academy of Sciences, found a population and named it Salmo iridia, later corrected to Salmo Irideus. These names faded once it was determined that Walbaum’s description of type specimens was conspecific and therefore had precedence. In 1989, taxonomic authorities moved the rainbow, cutthroat, and other Pacific basin trout into the genus OncorHynchUS. Walbaum’s original species name, mykiss, was derived from the local Kamchatkan name used for the fish, mykizha. Some redband trout populations and cutbowat populations may also display reddish or pink throat markings. In many hatchery regions, many red and golden trout forms are typically retained into adulthood. In some red banded trout populations, very very pink or pink trout populations are also displayed. The fish are usually more silvery in color with the reddish stripes almost completely gone. The caudal fin is squarish and only pronounced for breeding males in breeding females.

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