Florida Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides flor. ![]() They are dependent on pool development, shade-giving streamside vegetation, and undercut banks for cover and are capable of tolerating a range of temperatures. It exists in the West Fork of the Black River and a few small impoundments, such as Lee Valley Lake, and the largest population is on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.Īpache trout inhabit clear, cool mountain headwaters of streams and creeks above 7,500 feet and mountain lakes. The Apache trout occurs in the upper Salt River and the Little Colorado River systems (the Colorado River drainage) in Arizona. Females lay between 100 and 4,000 eggs in nests (called redds) at the downstream ends of pools the lower egg counts occur in wild stream populations and the higher counts in hatcheries.Īs with other trout that live in flowing water, Apache trout eat both aquatic and terrestrial insects such as mayflies, caddisflies, and grasshoppers. The all-tackle world record is a 5-pound, 3-ounce fish taken in Arizona in 1991.ĭepending on the geographic elevation, spawning occurs between March and mid-June the higher the elevation, the later spawning occurs, beginning when water temperatures reach 46☏. The underside of the head is orange to yellowish-orange, with a complete lateral line of 112 to 124 scales.Īdult fish usually range from 8 to 15 inches in length, although they can reach 18 inches. The head, the back, the sides, and the fins have evenly spaced dark spots, and the dorsal, the pelvic, and the anal fins are white tipped. The Apache trout is a striking fish, with yellow to golden sides, an adipose fin, and a large dark spot behind each eye. The Apache trout was among the first fish species protected when the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was enacted, and it is currently listed as “threatened” or “likely to become endangered in the near future.” Since those times, a 95-percent reduction in range has resulted from hybridization with rainbow trout, brook trout, and other trout. Rainbow Trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Cutthroat Trout ( Oncorhynchus clarkii) will also predate on Apache Trout and hybridize with them (Arizona Game and Fish Department 2009 Minckley and Marsh 2009).A member of the Salmonidae family, the Apache trout is Arizona’s state fish and was once so abundant that early pioneers caught and salted large numbers of them as a winter meat source. Brown Trout ( Salmo trutta) and Brook Trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis) devour eggs, fingerling, and parr and out-compete Apache Trout for food and space. Widely stocked non-native trout species have impacted the Apache Trout. Females lay between 70 -300 eggs based on body size (Behnke 2002). The Apache Trout Oncorhynchus apache is native to th. These trout are native to very cool and clean freshwater mountain streams but now have been introduced to other water bodies, since they have been declared endangered. Temperature seems to be the critical factor to the initiation of spawning. The Southwest has the hottest and driest climate in the United States, and projections show that it will only get hotter and drier into the 2100s. Apache trout became one of the first species to be federally listed as endangered in 1969. The Apache trout can grow up to 24 inches in length and weigh up to 6 lbs, although it rarely grows past 10 inches and can reach up to 16 inches in its native waters. Spawning occurs in the spring (May) when water temperatures are rising and snow runoff into streams is lower. Adults are typically small in size because of their diet and habitat limitations.Īpache Trout require clean coarse gravel substrates for spawning and prefer cover in the form of woody debris, pools, coarse substrate such as gravel, cobble, and boulders, undercut stream-banks or overhanging vegetation at stream edges (Arizona Game and Fish Department 2009). ![]() ![]() Their diet consists of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates (Behnke 2002). This species typically lives four years, but the maximum known is six years. Lake populations have been stocked because there are no natural lakes occurring in the native range of the species (Behnke 2002). These creeks usually occur in mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forest (Arizona Game and Fish Department 2009). Ecology: Apache Trout's native habitat are small cool water (< 25º C) creeks that are relatively unstable and occur, at the lowest, from 1,800 to 2,100 meters in elevation (Rinne and Minckley 1985, Behnke 2002, Arizona Game and Fish Department 2009).
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