Mary Allen
The trout is a fish closely related to the salmon. The trout lives in the most diverse bodies of water on earth. In Europe, there is only the Atlantic trout in nature. They are divided into three subspecies: sea trout, lake trout, and brown trout.
The sea trout can be over a meter long and weigh up to 20 kilograms. Their back is gray-green, the sides are gray-silver, and the belly is white. They migrate up the rivers to lay their eggs and then return to the sea. In many rivers, however, they are extinct because they cannot get past many river power plants.
The brown trout and lake trout always stay in the freshwater. The coloring of the brown trout varies. It adapts to the bottom of the water. It can be recognized by its black, brown, and also red dots, which can be circled in a light color. The lake trout is silver in color and has mainly black spots, which can sometimes be brown or red.
Other fish attach their eggs to plants in the water. The trout, on the other hand, dig troughs in the bottom of the water with their lower body and tail. The females lay around 1000 to 1500 eggs there and the male trout fertilize them there.
The trout feeds on small animals found in the water. These are, for example, insects, small fish, crabs, tadpoles, and snails. The trout mostly hunts at night and tracks down their prey by their movements in the water. All types of trout are popular with anglers.
A specialty with us is the rainbow trout. They are also called “salmon trout”. She originally lived in North America. From the 19th century, it was bred in England. She was then brought to Germany and released into the wild there. Today they have hunted again and tried to exterminate them in the rivers and lakes. The rainbow trout are larger and stronger than the native trout and threaten them.