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Reproductive Biology and Early Life History of the Sunapee Trout of Floods Pond, Maine
Author(s) -
Kircheis Frederick W.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1976)105<615:rbaelh>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - reproductive biology , trout , fishery , life history , biology , geography , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , embryo , embryogenesis
Abstract The Sunapee trout (Salvelinus alpinus L.) of Floods Pond, Maine, spawned in October and November when surface water temperatures dropped below 15 C. There was little sexual dimorphism. Sexes were present on the spawning area in nearly equal numbers. Spawning occurred at night in shallow (30 to 100 cm) water near the lake shore. Eggs were scattered over a boulder‐strewn bottom. There was neither redd construction nor site preparation. The eggs were relatively large (5.08 mm) and negatively buoyant. Females had approximately 2,500 eggs/kg of body weight. In hatchery tests eggs eyed in about 50 days and hatched in 79–122 days at mean water temperatures ranging from 11.0–3.0 C. The yolk sac was absorbed in about two weeks and the fry immediately moved to deep water. All males were mature at age III+ and all females were mature at age IV+. Many females spawned in alternate years while most males spawned every year.