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Ancestor: Rivertrap Trout
Temporal Range:
Temporal Range:
Evolved: By 2 Myh
Extinct: Not yet
Geographical Range:
Geographical Range:
Location: Rivers across the wet and seasonally wet Southern areas of Catland, though has not dispersed all the way East yet.
Viable Habitat: Usually found in deep, old, wide rivers though explores into smaller rivers and seasonally dry rivers during the wet season when they become fuller with water and more accessible. Found in upland rivers during the spawning season.
The blue lines are a rough approximation of major river systems that the riversnare trout inhabits.
Size: Up to 2m long
Dietary Needs: Starts life on microscopic plankton and near-microscopic planktonic algae and animals. As it grows it begins to prey on smaller vertebrates and crustaceans. Then as it grows larger it moves onto larger vertebrates, including terrestrial vertebrates that approach water to drink or cross, and other members of their own species.
Life Cycle: Reproductive habits and spawning seasons (or lack of a distinct season) depends on species and environment. Most move upstream to spawn so their offspring can possibly colonise new rivers, but not all species always do this.
They take a few years to grow to maturity before dumping all of their life energy into a single spawning season. Their offspring have a high rate of mortality, highest of all at earlier points in life. If an adult successful in spawning there will be enough fertilized eggs to guarantee they will leave descendants that themselves leave descendants. It helps their own offspring's survival if their parents aren't competing with them, but if they are unsuccessful in the mating season (fail to release eggs or sperm, possibly fail to reach the spawning grounds) they will live for another year. It's rare for one of these fish to survive another year after successful mating, but it happens.
Males have competitive sperm as sometimes the sperm of many males may mix around the eggs of females. Sometimes multiple males attempt to mate with one female. Males who can make sperm that are greater in number, faster, more robust and have a greater store of energy stand the best chance of fertilising those eggs. This leads to indirect and opportunistic mating tactics after another male has already successfully attracted a female.
Other: Has keen electrosensory ability as well as a sensitive lateral line to pick up delicate vibrations and discern whether vibrational "noise" is from the environment or from an actual moving animal. This way nothing moving at close striking range goes unnoticed. Adults will strike at anything that seems like moving prey, and figure out if it's edible after. Juveniles behave more like the ancestors did, actively hunting and foraging more while avoiding predators. Adults spend more of their time motionless conserving energy, waiting for prey to pass by.
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