| Kingdom Animalia W Phylum Chordata W Class Actinopterygii W | ||||
| Links to External Information Web Sites [W = Wikipedia] | Links to my Pictures | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order | Family | Genus | Species | Common Name |
| Lepisosteiformes W |
Lepisosteidae W |
Lepisosteus W |
L. platyrhincus W |
Florida Gar |
| Perciformes W |
Centrarchidae W |
Lepomis W |
L. macrochirus W |
Bluegill |
| Micropterus W |
Bass | |||
| Salmoniformes W |
Salmonidae W |
Oncorhynchus W |
O. mykiss W |
Rainbow Trout |
| Salmo | S. trutta W |
Brown Trout | ||
| Order | Family | Genus | Species | Common Name |
| Links to External Information Web Sites [W = Wikipedia] | Links to my Pictures | |||
Trout Mating
January 30, 2010
Yesterday I saw 2 10" trout spawning in a creek near my house in Marietta, Georgia. There is a wood boardwalk 15 feet above one side of a wide, 2' deep slow section of Rottonwood Creek. As I was taking a walk there, I noticed the 2 fish swimming parallel and perhaps six inches apart. One fish was a little shorter and skinnier than the other. The fish would swim parallel and upstream slowly, slower than the current, so they were drifting downstream over time. They would alternate between swimming for 40 - 60 seconds, and headbutting the other fish by looping away, downstream, then swimming cross-stream and ramming the other, usually in the gill area. They would headbutt 2 or 3 times and return to the parallel swimming. I watched for about a half an hour, but it was getting dark and cold, and nothing new seemed to be happening, so I left. Today I looked this up in the library and found that this is typical spawning behaviour for salmonid fishes. Evidently they do this for hours or even days before laying and fertilizing the eggs.