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Ancestor: Unknown

Descendants 100,000 Yh:

Rivertrap Trout
South Ocean Trouts

Descendants 2 Myh:

Eeltrout

Size: 40cm (stream and river form), 114cm (anadromous form)
Weight: 2.3kg (stream and river form), 9 kg (anadromous form)

Dietary Needs: When the fish are newly hatched, they are reliant  on the few zooplankton species available, and the larvae of crayfish. Once mature, the fish eat a large variety of food sources: other trout eggs, peruvian anchoveta and their eggs, small young squid and their eggs, sparrows and insects near the water's edge (freshwater), crustaceans, snails and mice.

Life Cycle: The "rainbow trout" is the fish that completes it's lifecycle entirely in freshwater river systems. The "steelhead" trout spends some of it's development in the ocean. Both types of fish can be found in the North and South, but the steelhead is more common at the South.

Young fish hatch upstream and spend a couple of years maturing as they migrate downstream. For steelheads they "smolt" or adapt to changing salinity between freshwater and coastal ocean water near river openings when they are around two years old. They then spend a couple more years in the ocean, before returning to the rivers and migrating upstream as adult fish. They spawn in gravel riverbeds and are extreme r-strategists, producing thousands of eggs but providing no care to them. The hatched "alevin" swim with a yolk supply attached to see them over until they start feeding. While populations vary on adult post-spawning survival, some adults will migrate back to sea after spawning and may spawn again another year, but many will die from exertion.

Other: They use aquatic obstructions like vegetation, boulders, and fallen trees as protection.