Russia breeds heat-loving trout
Trout capable of reproducing in warm water have been bred in Russia, The Voice of Russia reports. The fish are the fruit of many years of work done by the experts at the “Adler” fish farm in the city of Sochi. Now experts are preparing the papers for registering copyright.
The new breed of rainbow trout spawns at the end of summer. During this period, water temperature even in mountain rivers, where the trout traditionally lives, rises to 18-20 degrees. This fish does not spawn at such a temperature anywhere in the world, it needs water no warmer than of 7-8 degrees. However, after many years of work, the Sochi experts managed to breed a unique trout which is happy even at 20 degrees.
The period of spawning for the trout depends on the latitude of its location, the absolute height above sea level and the water temperature. In northern countries, spawning begins in the middle of September, in Western Europe it continues until January and even the end of February. “Our trout spawns much earlier in the year, we have been breeding it for 14 years,” – Victoria Yankovskaya, the chief breeder of the “Adler” fish farm explained to “The Voice of Russia”.
“The need for this breed stems from the fact that the growth cycle in this case is cut down to 9-10 months. It means that in 10 months we can get a marketable fish weighing 250 to 300 grams. There is a large market for this fish”.
Breeders are confident that this early-spawning trout will enable them to increase the population of these valuable inhabitants of mountain rivers. At present, fish breeders in Sochi produce 20 to 25 million grains of roe a year. The roe ripened in incubators is sent to 90% of Russian fish farms which breed the trout.
The Sochi trout farm, which is over 30 years old, has created a gene pool of the most valuable and promising kinds of fish bred at different latitudes. By crossing the steelhead trout with the rainbow trout, experts got an absolutely new breed, the Adler trout, capable of living both in fresh and salt water.
[Source: The Voice of Russia]
