Arctic grayling

📖 Overview

Adults inhabit open water of clear, cold, medium to large rivers and lakes. They enter rocky creeks to spawn . They occur in piedmont and montane cold streams, rivers and lakes with high oxygen concentrations . They form schools in moderate numbers . Young feed on zooplankton with a gradual shift to immature insects; adults feed mainly on surface insects but also take in fishes, fish eggs, lemmings, and planktonic crustaceans . Spawning takes place in montane streams with heavy current on shallows with rock-gravel bottom . Utilized fresh and can be fried, broiled, boiled, and baked .

🔬 Taxonomy

🐟 Physical Description

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 17 - 25; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 11 - 15; Vertebrae: 58 - 62. Distinguished by its greatly enlarged dorsal fin and its small mouth, which has fine teeth on both jaws . Dorsal greatly enlarged in adults (especially males), reaching adipose fin when depressed, but is shorter in females; pelvic fins rather long, reach anal fin in adult males, but not in females; lower lobe of caudal often longer than upper . A strikingly colored fish, the dorsal surface is dark purple, or blue black to blue gray, the sides gray to dark blue with pinkish iridescence, the ventral surface gray to white . Scattered dark spots on sides, these being more numerous on the young; a dark longitudinal stripe along lower sides between pectoral and pelvic fins; dorsal fin dark with narrow purple edge (rows of reddish to orange or purple to green spots on body of fin); pelvic fins dark with irregular diagonal orange-yellow stripes; adipose, dorsal, anal, caudal and pectorals dusky to dark .: fusiform / normal; Cross section: compressed.

🌀 Behaviour

Behavioural data for Arctic grayling is currently being reviewed.

🦐 Diet

Diet information for Arctic grayling is currently being compiled.

🥚 Reproduction

Spawning adults move into tributaries and males establish territories. At spawning, the male follows a female, courting her with displays of his dorsal fin. He then drifts over beside her and curves his extended dorsal fin over the female. The pair vibrates and release eggs and milt. No redd is constructed, but the vibrations of the tails during the spawning act stirs up the substrate and produce a slight depression . A female may spawn only once, or several times in different areas . After spawning, adults establish summer territories in pools generally farther upstream from the spawning site, majority moving downstream in mid-September .

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

Freshwater; benthopelagic; potamodromous ; depth range 30 - ? m . Temperate; 71°N - 44°N North America: widespread in Arctic drainages from Hudson Bay, Canada to Alaska and in Arctic and Pacific drainages to central Alberta and British Columbia in Canada; upper Missouri River drainage in Montana, USA.

🌿 Ecology

📐 Morphometrics

🌡️ Water Parameters & Tolerance

🛡️ Conservation Assessment

📊 Population Risk & Fisheries

🌐 Names & Taxonomy

Scientific Synonyms

🐠 Related Species

🔍 Similar Species

🗺️ Global Occurrence Map

Occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - 11 records indexed .

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