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Trout Information
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Blue Rainbow Trout
Blue Rainbow Trout are a mutation that occur in
hatchery production of rainbow trout. So far, this rare genetic glitch has
occurred only in rainbow and brown trout. To understand the rarity of Blue
Rainbow Trout one hatchery recorded 30 rainbow trout were blue in a spawn of about four million eggs. One year, more blue
trout might appear. Another year, fewer.
"They are typically separated early on from the other trout because
they're weaker fish and unless they are set aside, during the first year the
other fish usually eat them, or they succumb to the rigors of the hatchery's
high-density environmental conditions."
Also Blue Rainbow Trout don't reproduce. Neither the males nor the females
develop mature reproductive organs.
"We've been getting blue rainbow trout and blue brown trout for some 30
years or more, as long as I've been with the Commission," says Bill
Kennedy, Bureau of Fisheries Training Officer. "Years ago there was a
concerted effort to produce a line of blue trout. But Dr. James Wright, a Penn
State geneticist, determined that something was wrong with them
physiologically."
Wright identified them as genetic anomalies, or mutations. He determined that
blue trout probably suffer from a thyroid deficiency. A fish's thyroid gland
produces hormones that affect its coloring during all its life stages. Thus,
the hormonal mix-up lets these fish form only the bluish pigment.
"Blue trout are extremely rare," Kennedy says, "and they are
not something we can selectively breed. Hatcheries keep them as show
fish."
Albino Rainbow Trout
Albino trout, like blue trout, are another rare genetic anomaly. Because of a
different kind of genetic quirk, albino trout lack the ability to color
themselves normally. Albino trout are different from blue trout in several
ways: Albino trout are just as vibrant as other trout. They can also
reproduce, but getting more albino trout is rare and unpredictable. All trout
species can produce albinos.
Golden Rainbow Trout
Golden rainbow trout and the related palomino trout are genetically
manipulated fish. In 1954, the West Virginia Conservation Department
discovered a single rainbow trout that was partly normally pigmented and
partly gold. West Virginia developed the fully golden strain, and by the
1960s, that strain became popular among anglers. In the 1960s, the Commission
began producing and stocking the gold-colored palomino trout. The Commission
now raises and stocks a slightly different strain, the golden rainbow trout.
The rarity of that one partly golden fish was just as uncommon as albino and
blue trout.
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