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Conasauga River

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The Conasauga River is a river that runs through southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia . The Conasauga River is 93 miles (150 km) long and drains into the Oostanaula River , a tributary of the Coosa River and part of the watershed of the Gulf of Mexico . The river is home to over 90 species of fish and 25 surviving species of freshwater mussels. Its watershed encompasses over 500,000 acres (2,000 km) in two states, multiple counties, and two ecologically different regions.

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85-702: The Conasauga River is the most westerly trout water on public land in Georgia. It is the only river in Tennessee that is not a part of the Mississippi River watershed. The only road access to the Conasauga is found via Old GA 2, GA 2 , and Carlton Petty Road. Access via foot trail is located on Forest Service road (FS) 64 in Betty Gap. Three other trails descend from the west off FS 17 to intersect

170-410: A steelhead subspecies, generally accepted as coming from Sonoma Creek . The rainbow trout of New Zealand still show the steelhead tendency to run up rivers in winter to spawn. In Australia, the rainbow trout was introduced in 1894 from New Zealand and is an extremely popular gamefish in recreational angling. Despite severely impacting the distribution and abundance of native Australian fish, such as

255-451: A backbone like snails, worms, or insects. They also eat flies, and most people who try to use lures to fish trout mimic flies because they are one of trout's most fed on meals. Trout enjoy certain land animals, including insects like grasshoppers. They also eat small animals like mice when they fall in. (Although only large trout have mouths capable of eating mice.) They consume a diet of aquatic life like minnows or crawfish as well. Trout have

340-464: A breeding site. The females choose large males that are successfully defending prime breeding sites which the females find attractive. For example, sculpin males defend "caves" underneath rocks which are suitable for the incubation of embryos. Another way males get to mate with several females is through the use of leks. Leks are places where many fish come together, and the males display to each other. Based on these displays, each female then selects

425-480: A classification of the spawning behaviours of fish by Balon (1975, 1984) into reproductive guilds . This classification is based on how the eggs are fertilized (internal or external spawners), where the eggs are deposited ( pelagic or benthic spawners), and whether and how the parents look after the eggs after spawning (bearers, guarders and nonguarders). Nonguarders do not protect their eggs and offspring after spawning Open substrate spawners scatter their eggs in

510-408: A condition known as physostome . Unlike many other physostome fish, trout do not use their bladder as an auxiliary device for oxygen uptake, relying solely on their gills . There are many species, and even more populations, that are isolated from each other and morphologically different. However, since many of these distinct populations show no significant genetic differences, what may appear to be

595-595: A diverse diet they follow; they have plenty of different oppositions. Compared to other salmonids, trout are somewhat more bony , but the flesh is generally considered delicious, and the texture is often indistinguishable from that of salmon . The flavor of the flesh is heavily influenced by the diet of the fish. For example, trout that have been feeding on crustaceans tend to be more flavorful than those feeding primarily on insects and larvae . Because of their popularity, trout are often raised on fish farms and then stocked into heavily fished waters, in an effort to mask

680-772: A few days and replace the dominant male. This is found amongst coral reef fishes such as groupers , parrotfishes and wrasses . It is less common for a male to switch to a female ( protandry ). As an example, most wrasses are protogynous hermaphrodites within a haremic mating system. Hermaphroditism allows for complex mating systems. Wrasses exhibit three different mating systems: polygynous, lek-like , and promiscuous mating systems. Group spawning and pair spawning occur within mating systems. The type of spawning that occurs depends on male body size. Labroids typically exhibit broadcast spawning, releasing high amounts of planktonic eggs, which are broadcast by tidal currents; adult wrasses have no interaction with offspring. Wrasse of

765-840: A forage fish of the smelt family found in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. In summer, they graze on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin also eat krill and other crustaceans . The capelin move inshore in large schools to spawn and migrate in spring and summer to feed in plankton rich areas between Iceland , Greenland , and Jan Mayen . The migration is affected by ocean currents . Around Iceland maturing capelin make large northward feeding migrations in spring and summer. The return migration takes place in September to November. The spawning migration starts north of Iceland in December or January. The diagram on

850-600: A force the native salmon and trout have to reckon with. Not only do the non-native fish drive the native fish to occupy new niches, but they also try to hybridize with them, contaminating the native gene construction. As more hybrids between native and non-native fish are formed, the lineage of the pure fish is continuously being contaminated by other species and soon may no longer represent the sole native species. The Rio Grande cutthroat trout ( Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis ) are susceptible to hybridization with other salmonids such as rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) and yield

935-696: A good fight when caught with a hook and line . As trout are predatory fish , lure fishing (which use replica baits called lures to imitate live prey) is the predominant form of sport fishing involving trout, although traditional bait fishing techniques using floats and/or sinkers (particularly with moving live baits such as baitfish , crayfish or aquatic insects ) are also successful, especially against stocked trout that are hatchery / farm -raised and thus more accustomed to artificial feeds . Many species of trout, most noticeably rainbow trout and brown trout , have been widely introduced into waterbodies outside of their native ranges purely for

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1020-477: A large number of species is considered a much smaller number of distinct species by most ichthyologists . The trout found in the eastern United States are a good example of this. The brook trout , the aurora trout , and the (extinct) silver trout all have physical characteristics and colorations that distinguish them, yet genetic analysis shows that they are one species, Salvelinus fontinalis . Lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ), like brook trout, belong to

1105-479: A large part of the diet. In general, trout longer than about 300 millimetres (12 in) prey almost exclusively on fish, where they are available. Adult trout will devour smaller fish up to one-third of their length. Trout may feed on shrimp , mealworms , bloodworms , insects , small animal parts, and eel . Trout who swim the streams love to feed on land animals, aquatic life, and flies. Most of their diet comes from macroinvertebrates, or animals that do not have

1190-429: A new " cutbow " trout, which is a contamination of both lineages’ genes. One solution to this issue is implemented by New Mexico Department of Game and Fish hatcheries : stock only sterile fish in river streams. Hatcheries serve as a reservoir of fish for recreational activities but growing and stocking non-sterile fish would worsen the hybridization issue on a quicker, more magnified time scale. By stocking sterile fish,

1275-400: A pair of gonads , which release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release. This ensures that, when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available. A single anglerfish female can "mate" with many males in this manner. Polygynandry occurs when multiple males mate indiscriminately with multiple females. This mutual promiscuity is

1360-503: A particular subgroup of the family Labridae , Labrini, do not exhibit broadcast spawning. Less commonly hermaphrodites can be synchronous , meaning they simultaneously possess both ovaries and testicles and can function as either sex at any one time. Black hamlets "take turns releasing sperm and eggs during spawning. Because such egg trading is advantageous to both individuals, hamlets are typically monogamous for short periods of time–an unusual situation in fishes." The sex of many fishes

1445-488: A relatively small number of embryos and retain them for a few weeks to 16 months or longer. The shorter times spans are characteristic of species that eventually deposit their embryos in the environment, surrounded by a horny capsule; whereas the longer periods are characteristic of sharks that retain the embryos until they are ready to emerge as actively swimming young." However, some fish do not fit these categories. The livebearing largespring gambusia ( Gambusia geiseri )

1530-400: A significant temperature change, often in spring. Males chase females, prompting them to release their eggs by bumping and nudging them. As the female goldfish spawns her eggs, the male goldfish stays close behind fertilizing them. Their eggs are adhesive and attach to aquatic vegetation. The eggs hatch within 48 to 72 hours. Within a week or so, the fry begins to assume its final shape, although

1615-588: A source of nutrients for scavengers , detrivores and riparian florae , making trout keystone species across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems . The name "trout" is commonly used for many (if not most) species in three of the seven genera in the subfamily Salmoninae: Salmo ( Atlantic ), Oncorhynchus ( Pacific ) and Salvelinus ( circum - arctic ). Fish species referred to as trout include: Trout that live in different environments can have dramatically different colorations and patterns. Mostly, these colors and patterns form as camouflage , based on

1700-605: A species is all-male or all-female. Unisexuality occurs in some fish species, and can take complex forms. Squalius alburnoides , a minnow found in several river basins in Portugal and Spain, appears to be an all-male species. The existence of this species illustrates the potential complexity of mating systems in fish. The species originated as a hybrid between two species, and is diploid , but not hermaphroditic. It can have triploid and tetraploid forms, including all-female forms that reproduce mainly through hybridogenesis . It

1785-423: A species is either male or female, and remains that way throughout their lives. Most fish are gonochorists, but hermaphroditism is known to occur in 14 families of teleost fishes. Usually hermaphrodites are sequential , meaning they can switch sex, usually from female to male ( protogyny ). This can happen if a dominant male is removed from a group of females. The largest female in the harem can switch sex over

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1870-438: A substrate and guard them until the eggs hatch. After hatching, the female picks up the fry and keeps them in her mouth. When the fry can fend for themselves, they are released. Some eartheaters are larvophile mouthbrooders. The beginning of the evolutionary process of livebearing starts with facultative (optional) internal bearing. The process occurs in several species of oviparous (egg-laying) killifishes which spawn in

1955-460: A verb, to spawn refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is known as spawning . The vast majority of aquatic and amphibious animals reproduce through spawning. These include the following groups: As a general rule, aquatic or semiaquatic reptiles , birds , and mammals do not reproduce through spawning, but rather through copulation like their terrestrial counterparts. This

2040-437: A year may pass before they develop a mature goldfish colour; until then they are a metallic brown like their wild ancestors. In their first weeks of life, the fry grow quickly—an adaptation born of the high risk of getting devoured by the adult goldfish. Carp typically spawn in the spring and summer, depending on the climate and conditions. Oxygen levels of the water, availability of food, size of each fish, age, number of times

2125-438: Is also true of cartilaginous fishes (such as sharks , rays and skates ). Spawn consists of the reproductive cells ( gametes ) of many aquatic animals, some of which will become fertilized and produce offspring. The process of spawning typically involves females releasing ova (unfertilized eggs) into the water, often in large quantities, while males simultaneously or sequentially release spermatozoa ( milt ) to fertilize

2210-444: Is an "investment by parents in offspring that increases the offspring's chances of surviving (and hence reproducing). In fish, parental care can take a variety of forms including guarding, nest building, fanning, splashing, removal of dead eggs, retrieval of straying fry, external egg carrying, egg burying, moving eggs or young, ectodermal feeding, oral brooding, internal gestation, brood-pouch egg carrying, etc." Territorial behaviour

2295-441: Is an external method of reproduction where the female releases many unfertilised eggs into the water. At the same time, a male or many males release a lot of sperm into the water which fertilises some of these eggs. The eggs contain a drop of nutrient oil to sustain the embryo as it develops inside the egg case. The oil also provides buoyancy, so the eggs float and drift with the current. The strategy for survival of broadcast spawning

2380-615: Is called coral because it turns bright red when cooked. Roe (reproductive organs) are usually eaten either raw or briefly cooked. "The reproductive behaviour of fishes is remarkably diversified: they may be oviparous (lay eggs), ovoviviparous (retain the eggs in the body until they hatch), or viviparous (have a direct tissue connection with the developing embryos and give birth to live young). All cartilaginous fishes—the elasmobranches (e.g., sharks, rays, and skates)—employ internal fertilization and usually lay large, heavy-shelled eggs or give birth to live young. The most characteristic features of

2465-408: Is difficult for fish to find partners, or when both sexes look after the young. Many tropical cichlids , which rear their young together in locations where they must fiercely defend against competitors and predators are monogamous. "In some pipefishes and seahorses , development of eggs takes a long time before the female can place them in the brood pouch of a male, where they are fertilized. While

2550-610: Is dominated by large and aggressive males. Cuckoldry is a variant of polyandry, and can occur with sneak spawners (sometimes called streak spawners ). A sneak spawner is a male that rushes in to join the spawning rush of a spawning pair. A spawning rush occurs when a fish makes a burst of speed, usually on a near vertical incline, releasing gametes at the apex, followed by a rapid return to the lake or sea floor or fish aggregation. Sneaking males do not take part in courtship. In salmon and trout, for example, jack males are common. These are small silvery males that migrate upstream along with

2635-453: Is estimated that only 1% of original population remains. The waters yield established populations of rainbow trout and brown trout , with rainbows up to 20 inches (510 mm) and browns to 9 pounds (4.1 kg). The managed land is populated by white-tailed deer , wild hogs , black bears , and smaller animals. The Conasauga River is a Category 1 priority watershed in Georgia's Unified Watershed Assessment and 18 miles (29 km) of

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2720-489: Is generally necessary for guarders, and the embryos are almost always guarded by males (apart from cichlids). There is a need to be territorial because looking after embryos usually includes defending the site where they are being looked after. It also often means there is competition for the best egg-laying sites. Elaborate courtship behaviour is usual among guarders. Guarding males keep the embryos safe from predators, keep oxygen levels high by fanning water currents, and keep

2805-661: Is much cheaper than the imported Atlantic salmon and the meat are indistinguishable to the untrained eyes, and the news of trout being sold as salmon triggered public scrutiny accusing seafood suppliers of bait-and-switch and unethical business practices . Also, many people believe freshwater trout are more prone to parasites than oceanic salmon (even though both live in freshwater for significant periods of their life cycles) and thus unsafe for raw eating . One fillet of trout (about 79 g or 2.8 oz) contains: Trout are very popular freshwater game fish highly prized especially by creek fishermen, because they generally put up

2890-450: Is not fixed, but can change with physical and social changes to the environment where the fish lives. Particularly among fishes, hermaphroditism can pay off in situations where one sex is more likely to survive and reproduce, perhaps because it is larger. Anemone fishes are sequential hermaphrodites which are born as males, and become females only when they are mature. Anemone fishes live together monogamously in an anemone , protected by

2975-517: Is often associated with r-strategists . However, most fish and other spawning animals are iteroparous. When the internal ovaries or egg masses of fish and certain marine animals are ripe for spawning they are called roe . Roe from certain species, such as shrimp , scallop , crab and sea urchins , are sought as human delicacies in many parts of the world. Caviar is a name for the processed, salted roe of non-fertilized sturgeon . The term soft roe or white roe denotes fish milt . Lobster roe

3060-494: Is often necessary to construct fish ladders and other bypass systems so salmon can navigate their way past hydroelectric dams or other obstructions such as weirs on their way to spawning grounds. Coastal fish often use mangroves and estuaries as spawning grounds, while reef fish can find adjacent seagrass meadows that make good spawning grounds. Short-finned eels can travel anything up to three or four thousand kilometres to their spawning ground in deep water somewhere in

3145-509: Is rare to find true parthenogenesis in fishes, where females produce female offspring with no input from males. All-female species include the Texas silverside , Menidia clarkhubbsi as well as the Amazon molly . Parthenogenesis has been recently observed in hammerhead sharks and blacktip sharks . It is also known to occur in crayfish and amphibians. This section is patterned after

3230-503: Is the egg yolk, as in externally spawned eggs. This situation, also referred to as ovoviviparity , is characteristic of marine rock fishes and the Lake Baikal sculpins . This strategy allows these fish to have fecundities approaching those of pelagic fish with external fertilization, but it also enables them to protect the young during their most vulnerable stage of development. By contrast, sharks and rays using this strategy produce

3315-476: Is to disperse the fertilised eggs, preferably away from the coast into the relative safety of the open ocean. There the larvae develop as they consume their fat stores, and eventually hatch from the egg capsule into miniature versions of their parents. To survive, they must then become miniature predators themselves, feeding on plankton. Fish eventually encounter others of their own kind ( conspecifics ), where they form aggregations and learn to school. Internally,

3400-463: Is virtually impossible to define a particular color pattern as belonging to a specific breed; however, in general, wild fish are claimed to have more vivid colors and patterns. Trout have fins entirely without spines, and all of them have a small adipose fin along the back, near the tail. The pelvic fins sit well back on the body, on each side of the anus. The swim bladder is connected to the esophagus , allowing for gulping or rapid expulsion of air,

3485-549: The Cherokee language meaning "grass". According to the Geographic Names Information System , Conasauga River has also been known historically as: Trout Trout ( pl. : trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera Oncorhynchus , Salmo and Salvelinus , all of which are members of

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3570-618: The Coral Sea . Forage fish often make great migrations between their spawning, feeding and nursery grounds. Schools of a particular stock usually travel in a triangle between these grounds. For example, one stock of herrings have their spawning ground in southern Norway , their feeding ground in Iceland , and their nursery ground in northern Norway. Wide triangular journeys such as these may be important because forage fish, when feeding, cannot distinguish their own offspring. Capelin are

3655-570: The bluegill sunfish in fresh water. Sneaker males that become too large to hide effectively become satellite males . With bluegill sunfish, satellite males mimic the behaviour and colouration of the females. They hover over a nest containing a pair of courting sunfish, and gradually descend to reach the pair just as they spawn. Males may need to be 6 or 7 years old to function capably as parental males, but may be able to function as sneaker or satellite males when they are as young as 2 or 3 years old. The smaller satellite and sneaker males may get mauled by

3740-658: The climbing galaxias , millions of rainbow and other trout species are released annually from government and private hatcheries. The closest resemblance of seema trout and other trout family can be found in the Himalayan Region of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and in Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan . Trout generally feed on other fish, and soft-bodied aquatic invertebrates , such as flies , mayflies , caddisflies , stoneflies , mollusks and dragonflies . In lakes, various species of zooplankton often form

3825-662: The sardine run occurs when millions of sardines migrate from their spawning grounds south of the southern tip of Africa northward along the Eastern Cape coastline. Chinook salmon make the longest freshwater migration of any salmon, over 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) up the Yukon River to spawning grounds upstream of Whitehorse , Yukon. Some green sea turtles swim more than 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) to reach their spawning grounds. Goldfish , like all cyprinids , are egg-layers. They usually start breeding after

3910-488: The subfamily Salmoninae in the family Salmonidae . The word trout is also used for some similar-shaped but non-salmonid fish, such as the spotted seatrout/speckled trout ( Cynoscion nebulosus , which is actually a croaker ). Trout are closely related to salmon and have similar migratory life cycles . Most trout are strictly potamodromous , spending their entire lives exclusively in freshwater lakes , rivers and wetlands and migrating upstream to spawn in

3995-421: The abdomen. Male sharks and rays can pass sperm along a duct into a seminal vesicle , where they store it for a while before it is expelled, while teleosts usually employ separate sperm ducts. Externally, many marine animals, even when spawning, show little sexual dimorphism (difference in body shape or size) or little difference in colouration . Where species are dimorphic, such as sharks or guppies ,

4080-472: The anemone stings. The males do not have to compete with other males, and female anemone fish are typically larger. When a female dies a juvenile (male) anemone fish moves in, and "the resident male then turns into a female and reproductive advantages of the large female–small male combination continue". In other fishes sex changes are reversible. For example, if some gobies are grouped by sex (male or female), some will switch sex. Unisexuality occurs when

4165-420: The approach most commonly used by spawning animals, and is perhaps the "original fish mating system." Common examples are forage fish , such as herrings , which form huge mating shoals in shallow water. The water becomes milky with sperm and the bottom is draped with millions of fertilized eggs. Alternate male strategies which allow small males to engage in cuckoldry can develop in species where spawning

4250-592: The area as part of the Chattahoochee National Forest and Cherokee National Forest . The preserve covers over 95,000 acres (380 km) and contains approximately 15 miles (24 km) of the Conasauga. The Conasauga River is home to more than 90 fish species, including 10 federally listed species of fish and mussels. Among these is the endemic , endangered Conasauga logperch ( Percina jenkinsi ). Historically there were 42 species of freshwater mussels, however only 25 species still exist. It

4335-448: The area free from dead embryos and debris. They protect the embryos until they hatch, and often look after the larval stages as well. The time spent guarding can range from a few days to several months. Some guarders build nests ( nest spawners ) and some do not ( substrate spawners ), though the difference between the two groups can be small. Substrate spawners clean off a suitable area of surface suitable for egg laying, and look after

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4420-432: The area, but they do not actively build a nest. Bearers are fish that carry their embryos (and sometimes their young) around with them, either externally or internally. Mouth brooders - carry eggs or larvae in their mouth. Mouth brooders can be ovophiles or larvophiles. Ovophile or egg-loving mouth-brooders lay their eggs in a pit, which are sucked up into the mouth of the female. The small number of large eggs hatch in

4505-477: The brooding but cannot handle all the eggs the female produce, such as with some pipefish . The males in some deep sea anglerfishes are much smaller than the females. When they find a female they bite into her skin, releasing an enzyme that digests the skin of their mouth and her body and fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then slowly atrophies , losing first his digestive organs, then his brain, heart, and eyes, ending as nothing more than

4590-485: The char genus. Lake trout inhabit many of the larger lakes in North America, and live much longer than rainbow trout , which have an average maximum lifespan of seven years. Lake trout can live many decades, and can grow to more than 30 kilograms (66 lb). As salmonids, trout are coldwater fish that are usually found in cool (50–60 °F or 10–16 °C), clear streams, wetlands and lakes, although many of

4675-576: The day and larger trout crowding in during morning and evening feeding periods. Fishing for trout under the ice generally occurs in depths of 4 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.4 m). Because trout are cold water fish, during the winter they move from up-deep to the shallows, replacing the small fish that inhabit the area during the summer. Trout in winter constantly cruise in shallow depths looking for food, usually traveling in groups, although bigger fish may travel alone and in water that's somewhat deeper, around 12 feet (3.7 m). Rainbow, Brown, and Brook trout are

4760-554: The effects of overfishing . Farmed trout are also sold commercially as seafood , although they are not saltwater fish . Trout meat is typically prepared the same way as salmon, often by smoking . In Mainland China , farm-raised rainbow trout from Qinghai was officially sanctioned to be labeled and sold domestically as salmon, which caused much controversy regarding food safety and consumer rights violation , as raw fish dishes or yusheng using Atlantic salmon are gaining popularity in southern China . Farmed rainbow trout

4845-476: The eggs. The fungi ( mushrooms ), are also said to "spawn" when they release a white, ‘fibrous’ matter, forming the matrix from-which they grow. There are many variations in the way spawning occurs, depending on sexual differences in anatomy, how the sexes relate to each other, where and how the spawn is released and whether or how the spawn is subsequently guarded. Marine animals, and particularly bony fish , commonly reproduce by broadcast spawning . This

4930-507: The environment. They usually spawn in shoals without complex courtship rituals, and males outnumber females. Broadcast spawners : release their gametes (sperm and eggs) into open water for external fertilisation. There is no subsequent parental care. About 75% of coral species are broadcasters, the majority of which are hermatypic, or reef-building corals. Brood hiders hide their eggs but do not give parental care after they have hidden them. Brood hiders are mostly benthic spawners that bury

5015-532: The fertilized eggs. For example, among salmon and trout the female digs a nest with her tail in gravel. These nests are called redds . The female then lays her eggs while the male fertilizes them, while both fish defend the redd if necessary from other members of the same species. Then the female buries the nest, and the nest site is abandoned. In North America, some minnows build nests out of piles of stones rather than dig holes. The minnow males have tubercles on their head and body which they use to help them defend

5100-415: The host. The same female may use a number of mussels, and she deposits only one or two yellow, oval eggs into each. Early developmental stages are protected from predation within the body of the mussel. After 3 to 4 weeks larvae swim away from the host to continue life on their own. Guarders protect their eggs and offspring after spawning by practicing parental care (also called brood care ). Parental care

5185-470: The male is pregnant, the female starts a new batch of eggs, which are ready at about the same time that the male gives birth to the young from the previous mating. This close timing of development promotes monogamy, especially if the likelihood of encountering another potential mate is low." Polygyny occurs when one male gets exclusive mating rights with multiple females. In polygyny, a large conspicuous male usually defends females from other males or defends

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5270-533: The male they want to be their mate. For example, among the cichlid Cyrtocara eucinostomus in Lake Malawi , up to 50,000 large and colourful males display together on a lek four kilometres long. The females, which are mouth brooders, choose which male they want to fertilize their eggs. Polyandry occurs when one female gets exclusive mating rights with multiple males. This happens among fish like clownfish that change their sex. It can also happen when males do

5355-498: The males often have penis-like intromittent organs in the form of a modified fin. A species is semelparous if its individuals spawn only once in their lifetime, and iteroparous if its individuals spawn more than once. The term semelparity comes from the Latin semel , once, and pario , to beget, while iteroparity comes from itero , to repeat, and pario , to beget. Semelparity is sometimes called "big bang" reproduction, since

5440-437: The more powerful parental males, but they spawn when they are younger and they do not put energy into parental care. Hermaphroditism occurs when a given individual in a species possesses both male and female reproductive organs, or can alternate between possessing first one, and then the other. Hermaphroditism is common in invertebrates but rare in vertebrates. It can be contrasted with gonochorism , where each individual in

5525-581: The more primitive bony fishes is the assemblage of polyandrous (many males) breeding aggregations in open water and the absence of parental care..." There are two main reproduction methods in fish. The first method is by laying eggs and the second by live-bearing (producing their young alive). Monogamy occurs when one male mates with one female exclusively. This is also called pair spawning . Most fish are not monogamous, and when they are, they often alternate with non-monogamous behaviours. Monogamy can occur when feeding and breeding grounds are small, when it

5610-744: The most common trout species caught through the ice. By information from International Game Fish Association (IGFA), the most outstanding records are: Salmonid populations in general have been declining due to numerous factors, including invasive species , hybridization, wildfires, and climate change. Native salmonid fish in the western and southwestern United States are threatened by non-native species that were introduced decades ago. Non-native salmonids were introduced to enrich recreational fishing; however, they quickly started outcompeting and displacing native salmonids upon their arrival. Non-native, invasive species are quick to adapt to their new environment and learn to outcompete any native species, making them

5695-434: The mother's mouth, and the fry remain there for a period of time. Fertilization often occurs with the help of egg-spots, which are colorful spots on the anal fin of the male. When the female sees these spots, she tries to pick up the egg-spots, but instead gets sperm that fertilizes the eggs in her mouth. Many cichlids and some labyrinth fish are ovophile mouthbrooders. Larvophile or larvae-loving mouth-brooders lay their eggs on

5780-485: The native Gila trout will be evacuated from streams that are threatened by nearby fires and be reintroduced after the threat is resolved. Climate change is also dwindling native salmonid populations. Global warming continually affects various cold-water fish such as trout, especially as inland waterbodies are more prone to warming than oceans. With an increase of temperature along with changes in spawning river flow, an abundance of trout species are effected negatively. In

5865-532: The native salmonids can't share genes with the non-native hatchery fish, thus, preventing further gene contamination of the native trout in New Mexico. Fire is also a factor in deteriorating Gila trout ( Oncorhynchus gilae ) populations because of the ash and soot that can enter streams following fires. The ash lowers water quality, making it more difficult for the Gila trout to survive. In some New Mexico streams,

5950-399: The nest site. Bitterlings have a remarkable reproduction strategy where parents transfer responsibility for the care of their young to mussels . The female extends her ovipositor into the mantle cavity of the mussel and deposits her eggs between the gill filaments. The male then ejects his sperm into the mussel's inhalant water current and fertilization takes place within the gills of

6035-415: The normal way on the substrate, but in the process accidentally fertilize eggs that the female retains and does not spawn. These eggs are spawned later, usually without allowing much time for embryonic development. The next step in the evolution of livebearing is obligate (by necessity) internal bearing, where the female retains all the embryos. "The only source of nutrition for these embryos, however,

6120-561: The past, a mere 8 °F (4.4 °C) increase was predicted to eliminate half of the native brook trout in the Southern Appalachian Mountains . Trout generally prefer streams with colder water (50–60 °F or 10–16 °C) to spawn and thrive, but raising water temperatures are altering this ecosystem and further deteriorate native populations. Spawn (biology) Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals . As

6205-458: The right shows the main spawning grounds and larval drift routes. Capelin on the way to feeding grounds is coloured green, capelin on the way back is blue, and the breeding grounds are red. In a paper published in 2009, researchers from Iceland recount their application of an interacting particle model to the capelin stock around Iceland, successfully predicting the spawning migration route for 2008. Referred to as "the greatest shoal on earth",

6290-410: The river and 54 miles (87 km) of the tributaries have been on Georgia's List of Impaired Waters for fecal, metal, toxic chemical, sediment, and nutrients. Up to one-third of the summer flow taken in the vicinity of Dalton, Georgia is used for carpet production. The river has been contaminated with perfluorinated compounds used to make carpets stain-resistant. "Conasauga" is a name derived from

6375-589: The river trail. From south to north they are the Chestnut Lead, 2.0 miles (3.2 km), Tearbritches Trail, 4.0 miles (6.4 km), and Hickory Creek Trail, 3.0 miles (4.8 km). Primitive camping is allowed all along the river. At the core of the Conasauga watershed is the 35,268-acre (142.72 km) Cohutta Wilderness , located in Fannin , Gilmer , and Murray counties in Georgia and Polk County in Tennessee. The United States Forest Service manages

6460-496: The sake of recreational fishing , and some of these introduced populations have even become invasive in the new habitats. While trout can be caught with a normal rod and reel , fly fishing is a distinctive lure fishing method developed for trout, and now extended to other species. Due to the high proportion of insects and small crustaceans within the trout's diet, small lures made of hand-tied hairs and threads are often used to imitate these aquatic invertebrates that

6545-758: The same fashion as a salmon run . Brook trout and three other extant species of North American trout, despite the names, are actually char (or charr) , which are salmonids also closely related to trout and salmon. Trout are classified as oily fish and have been important food fish for humans . As mid-level predators , trout prey upon smaller aquatic animals including crustaceans , insects , worms , baitfish and tadpoles , and themselves in turn are also important staple prey items for many wildlifes including brown bears , otters , raccoons , birds of prey (e.g. sea eagles , ospreys , fish owls ), gulls , cormorants and kingfishers , and other large aquatic predators. Discarded remains of trout also provide

6630-412: The sexes of most marine animals can be determined by looking at the gonads . For example, male testes of spawning fish are smooth and white and account for up to 12% of the mass of the fish, while female ovaries are granular and orange or yellow, accounting for up to 70% of the fish's mass. Male lampreys, hagfish and salmon discharge their sperm into the body cavity where it is expelled through pores in

6715-523: The shallow gravel beds of smaller headwater creeks . The hatched fry and juvenile trout, known as alevin and parr , will stay upstream growing for years before migrating down to larger waterbodies as maturing adults . There are some anadromous species of trout, such as the steelhead (a coastal subspecies of rainbow trout ) and sea trout (the sea-run subspecies of brown trout ), that can spend up to three years of their adult lives at sea before returning to freshwater streams for spawning, in

6800-482: The single reproductive event of semelparous organisms is usually large and fatal to the spawners. The classic example of a semelparous animal is the Pacific salmon , which lives for many years in the ocean before swimming to the freshwater stream of its birth, spawning, and then dying. Other spawning animals which are semelparous include mayflies , squid , octopus , smelt , capelin and some amphibians. Semelparity

6885-527: The species have anadromous populations as well. Juvenile trout are referred to as troutlet, troutling or parr. They are distributed naturally throughout North America , northern Asia and Europe . Several species of trout were introduced to Australia and New Zealand by amateur fishing enthusiasts in the 19th century, effectively displacing and endangering several upland native fish species. The introduced species included brown trout from England and rainbow trout from California . The rainbow trout has

6970-427: The standard, large, hook-nosed males and that spawn by sneaking into a redd (spawning nest) to release sperm simultaneously with a mated pair. This behaviour is an evolutionarily stable strategy for reproduction, because it is favoured by natural selection just like the "standard" strategy of large males. Cuckoldry occurs in many fish species, including dragonets , parrotfishes and wrasses on tropical reefs and

7055-501: The surroundings, and will change as the fish moves to different habitats. Trout in, or newly returned from the sea, can look very silvery, while the same fish living in a small stream or in an alpine lake could have pronounced markings and more vivid coloration; it is also possible that in some species, this signifies that they are ready to mate. In general, trout that are about to breed have extremely intense coloration and can look like an entirely different fish outside of spawning season. It

7140-551: The trout prey upon. These ultralight fly lures cannot be cast adequately by conventional techniques, and a specialized heavy line (i.e. fly line) is needed to launch the lure. Understanding how moving water shapes the stream channel makes it easier to find trout. In most streams, the current creates a riffle-run-pool pattern that repeats itself over and over. A deep pool may hold a big brown trout, but rainbow trout and smaller brown trout are likely found in runs. Riffles are where fishers will find small trout, called troutlet, during

7225-548: Was thought to be ovoviviparous until it was shown in 2001 that the embryos received nutrients from the mother. Spawning grounds are the areas of water where aquatic animals spawn, or produce their eggs. After spawning, the spawn may or may not drift to new grounds which become their nursery grounds. Many species undertake migrations each year, and sometimes great migrations, to reach their spawning grounds. For example, lakes and river watersheds can be major spawning grounds for anadromous fish such as salmon . These days, it

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