The Beauty Tf Trout
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The beauty tf trout I"", can be described The color patterns are caused by variations as fusiform-shaped, soft-rayed fishes with a in skin pigments. These pigments in the cells terminal mouth, which is to say that they reflect light, particularly red, yelloq orange. have a body shaped like a dart, fins with brown, and black, to produce the trout's ex- flexible spines, and a mouth in which neither ternal colors. Some ofthese cells, called chro the upper nor the lower jaw extends. But the matophores, contain more than one type of most obvious and the most pleasing feature is pigment, and some pigments can move in their coloration. the cytoplasm of the cell to produce changes The brown trout and the western trouts in colors. The more spectacular colors, blue (cutthroat, rainbow, golden, Mexican for example, are produced in special reflecting golden, Apache, and Gila trout) have a pat- chromatophores called iridophores. Small, tern of darker spots against a lighter back- flat structures within the iridophores reflect ground. The chars (brook, bull, and lake these unusual colors. These chromatophores trout; Arctic and Dolly Varden char) gener- and iridophores provide the principal sources ally have a white leading edge on the anal and of color and occur at many locations in the pelvic fins and a pattern of lighter-colored skin as well as elsewhere in the body, the spots against a darker background. Beyond eyes, for example. When individual fishes un- basic spottingpatterns, various colors may be dergo color changes, there is a migration of present. For example, brook trout have spots pigment within the chromatophores to with blue aureoles; brown trout have faint create vivid concentrations of color on the halos around dark spots. fish. The bright red or orange on the under- There may be unique body colorations as sides ofspawning brook trout and Arctic char well, such as the brown-golden color of illustrates this phenomenon. brown trout or the reddish lateral stripe of Young fish in streams, particularly in their rainbow trout. Or there may be unusual dor- first year or two of life, are referred to as parr, sal patterns, such as the wormlike vermicula- and the dark, oblong bars many of them tions on the brook trout. Many species can have on their sides are called parr marks. be truly described as beautiful, but the The number and shape of these marks often brightest colors are reserved for those species can be used to distinguish juveniles of inhabitingwaters at the higher elevations and many salmonid species at a life stage when in the interior regions. The golden trout of other identifying marks may not be so pro- the Sierra Nevada of California, for example, nounced. In some species, these marks re- has a vivid red to red-orange belly and oper- main through adulthood; in others they dis- cula (gill covers), golden sides, reddish appear as the fish grows and develops distinct orange lateral bands, and a dark back. species coloration. I6 Tnour The vividly colored spotting pdtterns of trout class them among the most beautiful cf all Jreshwater fuh. The chars (brooh trout, upper left; Arctic char,lower left) have light spots on darh bachgrounds. The brown trout (upper right) dnd the western trouts (w e stslo p e cutthro at, low er right) can be recognized by their darh spots onlighter z o bachgrounds. or z "*-:.lromous, or sea-run, fish lose therr obstructions to its downstream passage, such ir-:: :la-rks and develop a silvery coloration as as dams. :' :" 5e11' from parr to smolt before migrat- During spawning as well, trout, particu- : : Lhe sea. Sea-run trout generally have a larly the males, often develop different, ,il-,ri jorsal surface and silvery sides while at sometimes quite brilliant, coloration. Males ri ;]- :-tJ after returning to fresh water, though of the Sunapee trout, for example, a sub- i *: returning to fresh water for long species of landlocked Arctic char.native to ,:-.,1s of time may lose this silvery appear- Maine but also transplanted to two lakes in a ,,. r -: rnd develop colors similar to those of the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, develop ,' ^ :: reshwater residents. The silvery color- bright orange-red underside during fall , : i- provides protective countershading at spawning. Other species, such as sea-run cut- i:r, ;. phenomenon known as Thayer's throat trout, darken at the time of spawning. *--.;rrle : Avian predators see only a dark In addition to color variations caused by ii:-::e. and aquatic predators looking uP see these life changes, color patterns can difFer light pattern against the bright sky. between individuals of the same species be- basic coloration of trout generally cause of the availability and the type of food, ', .-ri-s only during two stages oflife. During especially the number of red, yellow,"and "" - carotenoids, or pigments. If trout eat " ,ipment from parr to smolt in anadro- orange '-r : trout) not only do the sides of the mysid shrimp, for example, they will develop " :', develop a silvery sheen, but also the more of a reddish coloration in the flesh, and " :.r. or top: surface usually turns dark and their external colors often may be more bril- ;r: :irr marks fade. The scales during this liant. So a cutthroat trout in one body of ',:': ,ol are loose, and the fish can be easily water can look different from one in another ir:-::ird and can lose them if it encounters locale. For example, cutthroat from the Willamette River in Oregon often are quite pale, but the same subspecies in small tribu- taries in the Cascade Mountains will have brilliant colors in high contrast. The color patterns also can be a direct result of such local environmental conditions as lighting, cover, or bottom configuration. Apparendy what happens is that the chro- The oblongbars called parr with small size, matophores in the skin are affected by hor- marbs, along identtfi juvenile ftsh, although monal and nerve changes in the fish, which some species may retdin their are triggered by external stimuli, such as parr marhs into adulthood. ;,r{-ll{r e Ttour Is L7 H changes in light, cover, or the color of the oxygen can easily diffuse across the mem- substrate. Fish can cause their pigment cells brane and enter the blood. When levels I: of to fade between areas of normal color, bring- dissolved oxygen are low, trout have the abil- ing on a mottled appearance, or they can ity to increase the number of lamellae in use cause the cells to darken, creating an appear- so they can extract the greatest amount of ance that blends well with areas of cover. oxygen from the water. Booth reported in z 9. Color change in trout often is not as radical A 1979 that rainbow trout can increase the o o as it is in other fishes. Rather, the process is number of lamellae in use by some 20 per- more a change in contrast between color pat- cent when placed in conditions with lorv terns. Nevertheless, experiments by Jenkins levels of dissolved oxygen. in1969 showed that brook and brown trout could change basic background color, and LerBnar, r,rNB brown trout could develop motrled bands in flout also have a lateral line, and only one. response to dark and light colors of the unlike some other fish species. The lateral stream bottom. line is a series of sensory pores along the In 1969 andl970, Northcote and his asso- midline of each side of the fish. The exrernal ciates, studying populations ofrainbow trout pores actually are mechanoreceptors with above and below a waterfall in British Co- which trout detect water movement, avoid lumbia, found that the trout above the falls objects in their path, and sense certain chem- The gills are one of the most had a significantly higher number of parr icals critical structures of a The in the water, including pheromones fish. marks than those finger-shaped spread of the did below the falls. The from other fish. Scales along the lateral line gill flaments crea.tes d large difference probably is related to rwo phe- are unlike scales elsewhere on the bodl'. surface area that mLximizes nomena: differences in spawning times, so They have small canals that allow water to op p or tunities Jor oxJ gen that extrctction and carbon dioxide fish were subjected to different warer flow along the sensory stmctures of the removal. GiII flaments are temperatures, and generics. Probably a lateral [ine. easily damaged. by sediments higher number of parr marks led to better and other water pollutants. survival rates of the trout above falls, Dnr,rcerB ARnoR Sediments can act lihe sand- the paper on the gill flaments, perhaps because the higher numbers of Salmonids have smooth scales called q- eroding them away. Other pol- marks made the fish less visible to birds and cloid scales, which are quite thin and are lutants can cause the fl,aments other predators. partially embedded to mold. together, which in the skin in an overlap- reduces their surface area, ping pattern. They are found only on fishes Grr,r,s d.ecre ases oxygen e xtr a ction for which speed and reduced friction are es- potential, and stresses the frsh. Trout, like most fishes, have gills to extract sential. Thin scales provide an advantage in A stressed" poorly ftsh feeds oxygen from the water and is more lihely to become and to eliminate car- regulating buoyancy because they are light, disease-strichen. bon dioxide as water is passed across a series and they do protect the skin, though they' of grll filaments.