Rainbow Trout. Family Salmonidae.
There are 10-11 branched rays in the dorsal and anal fins. There are 135-147 scales in the lateral line. It has a fatty fin. The body is covered with small cycloid scales. The body color is silver, with many black spots above the lateral line, and the belly is light. Along the lateral line, there is a rainbow stripe, which is how the fish got its name. Young fish have 10-13 transverse black spots on their bodies, which disappear in two-year-old fish, and the color of the rainbow stripe is weakly expressed, slightly purple.
The homeland of the rainbow trout is the western part of North America (Alaska, California coast). It was introduced to Russia from Germany in 1890 (to Ukraine in the ponds of Puscha-Vodytsia) and again in 1948 (to the "Ropsha" farm near Leningrad).
Rainbow trout is an important object of aquaculture and acclimatization work. It was introduced to Kyrgyzstan in the 1970s at the Ton fish farm, where it is bred artificially. Fishermen at Issyk-Kul report that there have been cases of catching rainbow trout in Lake Issyk-Kul weighing up to 5 kg. It differs from the Issyk-Kul trout (hegar-kuni) by its higher body and bright coloration.
Rainbow trout has long been a valuable object of cage and pond fishing. Abroad and in our country, a wealth of experience has been accumulated in its breeding. Incubation of trout eggs is carried out in fish breeding apparatus, and the hatched larvae are raised in special pools or grow-out ponds.
However, ecologists in Kyrgyzstan are sounding the alarm. The State Agency for Environmental Protection proposes to ban the breeding of rainbow trout in Issyk-Kul, which threatens the extinction of endemic fish species in Issyk-Kul. Predators released into the mountain lake, according to government experts, could lead to a real ecological disaster.
Trout is a predator, and it soon began to threaten the complete extinction of endemic fish species and other organisms that make up the ecosystem of the mountain lake. According to the state agency, the greatest danger is posed to the Issyk-Kul loach. The catch volume of this fish has significantly decreased. The place of the loach on the shelves has been taken by trout, which, according to calculations by state agency specialists, consumes at least a ton of endemics daily.
Fish