Courtney Noone March 3, 2006
Science / period 5 Ms. Steneken
Trout Journal
Part One ~ Life Cycle & Behavior
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Early this morning, I was taking my first swimming lesson with my mom when a Brown trout came and attacked me. The reason he only attacked me is because they only like to hunt small fish. We live in a clear and cold stream, but my mom said that once I learn to swim, we might move to a pond that has access to the sea. My mom always takes care of me, but only for the first couple weeks or until I learn to survive on my own. Well anyway, I will tell you all about my life, where how I started and where I’m going.
As I was saying, I got attacked this morning! Living as a brook trout, I have very little aquatic predators because very few fish-eating fish live where I do. I am more likely to be eaten by fish-eating birds, herons and kingfishers. Occasionally otters and snapping turtles prey upon us. Many people consider me as a trout, but actually all brook trout are actually char. Other commonly considered trout are the lake trout, the bull trout, the Dolly Varden, and the arctic char.
I will start off by describing myself. My name is Brook, but often people call me “Brookie”. I am dark green (some people think light brown) with a streaked pattern of lighter shades across my flanks (the side of me). My flanks also have a unique sprinkling of red dots that are bordered by blue haloes. My belly and my lower fins are a reddish color.
Now that you know what I look like, I better tell you how I started. I was born in freshwater, just like every other brook trout. After 30 days of developing, I hatched into an alevin (Alevins are the stage in which the eggs hatch out into tiny embryonic fish that still have their yolk sac attached). After my yolk sac had used up all of its nutrients, I turned into a proper fry. When I was about 1 ½ inches long, I was able to leave the redd to feed. It won’t be long until I grow and start to look more like a trout. I will develop marks on me that are called Parr marks. When I get those marks I will be in the stage of “Parr.” Depending on what food I eat, I can stay as a Parr, from 1 to 4 years. At this point I will develop silver skin, and eventually make it down stream. This is when I will be known as a Smolt.
Once I was able to feed, I had to know what I could feed off of. So, my mommy gave me a list of things that she feeds off of. First on her list were tiny larval insects. Another thing she put on there was small fish (I found that kind of offensive). Older fish eat larger invertebrate, including many types of water insects. She also told me that occasionally, on a lucky day, we feed off of field mice and snakes.
That was my life as a baby, but know I am about to enter the real world… life as an adult brook trout. When I am fully grown I can grown up to 18 inches (sometimes even 34)! I will weigh about 3 pounds, but the only bad thing is I will probably die by the time I am 15.
As an adult, I am going to have to learn to spawn. I can be in breeding condition from the time I am three until anywhere after. Fish like me normally spawn in the late summer and fall. Many fish often prefer the water being 40 to 49 degrees Fahrenheit. This is how spawning occurs…
First, in the streams the female builds a nest by swimming firm into the gravel and vibrating her body, as she sweeps her tail. She will repeat this action many times over a period of 1 to 2 days (the male might be defending the area, while the female is doing this). Eventually, the male will arch his body over the female. At the same time, they vibrate and release the egg and sperm. The female then covers the eggs up with gravel, by using her tail. A current from the spring seeps into the gravel, which keeps the eggs oxygenated and free from silt. Depending on the water temperature, the eggs hatch in about 50-150 days (the colder the water the longer the wait).
Living as a trout I am going to have to learn how to protect myself. The most important thing is to learn is how to hide. I will also have to learn how to blend in (camouflage). Hiding is the main way because it is much easier to hide, rather than blend in. Mommy says to pretend I am playing hide-and-seek (except wait until the predator is gone to come out).
Something just popped into my mind that happened the other day… I was hanging around my house doing nothing when a lost fish came over. He thought he was some BIG TOUGH guy, but I could tell he wasn’t. He told me he was new to the stream. I asked him where he lived before. He replied that he lived in some classroom. But, he got kicked out of the tank for jumping out of it too many times. I told him that we had a lot of differences. Our first difference was that he didn’t have any predators, living in the tank (he was going to have to get used to that). Another variation was that he did not know how to get food because it was handed right to him in the tank. He probably was also going to have to learn what food to eat. At that very moment, I realized two things… one, we are extremely different from each other, and OH BOY was I going to have a lot of teaching to do!!