Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Trout

Can someone give me any information of the spawning habits of Rainbow and or speckled trout.
I would like to know at what time of the year they lay their eggs and how long it takes to hatch, (in the NorthEast region). Also whether they spawn in the shallow end of the pond. I have been trying to find a website with this info but have had no success so far.
Thanks for any input.

Good morning, Bob. I don't have a lot of experience with trout in ponds, but have occasionally worked with them. I think I'll provide some initial information, and then we'll see if any more experienced members can add further comments.

First of all, the rainbow trout has tremendous genetic diversity. There are strains that will spawn in spring or fall. Some strains grow faster than others. Some are more vulnerable to angling than others. Some will eat more insects while others will be more piscivorous (fish eating).

The time of spawning is often influenced by water temperatures. For spring-spawning rainbows, spring can be April or July, depending on elevation, temperature, etc. Once eggs are spawned (buried in gravel nest or "redds"), how long it takes to hatch depends on water temperature. The warmer, the faster the development process. Too warm, and they don't survive. Maybe someone from the Quebec area or the New England states can provide more likely dates and durations??

Fall spawning rainbows bury their eggs in the redds, and the eggs actually overwinter at those cold winter water temps. The eggs don't hatch until the next spring when water warms. That way, the young fish emerge into increasing food supplies (e.g., insects).

Now, having talked about spawning, let me address a concern that I have about your final question. Generally, we don't expect rainbow trout to spawn in ponds. My best information is that the only way this is likely to happen is if you have a spring (constant inflow of ground water) in a gravel vein, or something like that. In such circumstances, the rainbows may spawn. Now, this is pretty much what I've been taught, but my actual experience is limited. In western South Dakota ponds, the rainbows simply do not reproduce. In my brother's ponds in Wyoming, the rainbows only reproduce in a pond with a small, inflowing stream.

Hope this helps, and hopefully we'll get a little more input.

Dave

Bob -- by "speckled trout" could you perhaps have meant brook trout (brook charr)?

Brookies are fall spawners. The eggs overwinter, and fry generally emerge the next spring. I looked up brook trout in Scott and Crossman's Freshwater Fishes of Canada. They said that hatching takes 100 days at 5 C, and 50 days at 10 c. However, upper lethal temp for developing eggs is about 11.7 C. I'd guess winter stream temperatures are below 5 C in Quebec. :-) Once the eggs hatch, the fry stay in the redd (gravel nest) until their yolk sac is absorbed.

Brookies are more likely to be able to reproduce in a pond than rainbows. Apparently, a small inflow or small spring is generally enough to allow them to reproduce.

If you're not talking about brookies, then please ignore this. :-)

Dave

Dave,
I have had a discussion before on this site with someone who informed me that brook trout only spawn in the fall.
I grew up trout fishing in the smokie mts of NC, & unless the native specks, speckeled, brookies, brook trout (char) kept a full egg sac all summer they were spawning in April. They would congregate each spring in pools by the dozens spawning.
Now, these were true native fish.
I have searched the web & all I find for purchase/stocking are fall spawners.

Good morning, Ric. I know less every year, but I know one thing for certain. Never say "never" about fish, and never says "always." I constantly amazed by the variability and variety that fishes can exhibit. I've sampled spawning brook trout populations only in the fall in Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota (Black Hills), but I've never looked extensively in the spring, either. As you indicated, those are all introduced populations (not native).

Having said that, your comment piqued my interest. So, I grabbed a couple of fish books for a little reading.

First, I checked The Fishes of Tennessee (Etnier and Starnes), because I knew the brookies were native there. They say that "brook trout spawn in fall in Tennessee."

Next, I grabbed "Freshwater Fishes of Virginia (Jenkins and Burkhead). They said the brook trout "is an autmnal spawner; the onset of spawning is tuned to decreasing day-length and temperature. In Virginia, egg-laying spans late October and November; in cool northern areas spawning occurs in August and September."

Fish sometimes hold eggs if they don't spawn, and then resorb them (I think they actually take back the "energy" from the eggs into the body). So, sometimes that causes fish to have eggs at what appear to be odd times. Also, fish sometimes begin to develop the eggs for their next spawn months and months before spawning time. Again, there is so much diversity within speices, among species, and among places that I'm almost afraid to generalize any more! :-)

Finally, check out the following website. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission says that "brook trout spawning begins in September and ends in November."

http://www.ncwildlife.com/pg07_wildlifespeciescon/Profiles/troutbrook.pdf

I won't be the least bit surprised if someone comes back to the Forum and knows of a different spawning time for a particular strain of brook trout.

Dave

How do fish farms achieve spawning? If you had either an well inflow or a circulating pump, is it possible to create your gravel "stream bed" within your pond to induce your trout to spawn?

OK, finally might be able to contribute instead of just asimilating all the info on this board.

Bob, I looked over your past posts and I trust you realize how bad an idea introducing Goldfish to your pond was, not just for it & it's clearity but for the whole watershed if it is connected to one. Even if it is not it only takes one really bad storm to spread the joy you experienced.
(Sorry I had to critisize, but EVERYONE should be careful about undesireble introductions)

Anyway in Quebec pretty much the only fish that can be stocked are salmonids, at least thats all you'll be able to find easily. Here's the list of fish allowed for our region.
Species that can be stocked in the eastern Townships (french)

In my pond brook trout spawn from Mid October through November and I believe right up to Ice over. I'm probably less than 100KM from you so the time frame should fit. However Brook Trout spawning in your pond is appearently VERY, VERY rare if it's a closed environement. I have yet to find much online about self sustaining private trout ponds. My brookies spawn in ground water inflows in gravel veins as mentioned by Dave. However it's my understanding (Non academic) that rainbows cannot take advantage of such spawning sites. Rainbows would need flowing water and I believe quite a bit of it, you may have the required habitat in the waterway that connects your ponds but I think the required flow is likely more than what you pump.

Did your bass ever spawn? If not and what you want are jumping fish, why not fish out the bass & trash fish as much as possible and reintroduce trout. Unless you have a warm water pond you'll be better off with trout. Of course you'd need to stock big trout if all other fish are not removed but if you call around different fish suppliers you could likely get good prices this fall when they start looking to shut down some of their operations.

Last fall I picked up 250 - 4" all female Kamloops raibows @0.40 cents (Canadian) each.

Well there's my little contribution... & to the pros if I'm spreading miss information please do critisize.

Please let us know where you go from here, we need more trout/Cold water pond discussions on here.

Shawn -- how fish farms produce their fish depends on quite a few things, and the options vary by type of fish.

Some fish have more "primitive" ovaries where ripe eggs are loose in a simple bag or ovary sac and there is no complex connective tissue to hold the eggs. My choice of words doesn't seem very good here. However, these tend to be eggs of a similar size, and they are in a ovary that just has a thin wall, and nothing much inside except the eggs.

The fishes with "primitive" ovaries, or maybe I should just call them simple ovaries, can be hand stripped when the fish are ripe. Fishes such as trout and salmon, northern pike, and walleyes all fall into this group.

Some commercial trout farmers that hatch their own eggs simply hold and feed trout, perhaps in a raceway, until the eggs are ripe. Then, you strip eggs from females and milt from males, and fertilize the eggs. The eggs then are hatched; again this depends on species of fish. Trout eggs are often hatched in a series of screened trays with water flowing through them. Eggs must be "picked" daily to remove the dead ones, as fungus that starts on the dead eggs can move to the live eggs. Eggs from walleye and northern pike are often hatched in hatching jars.

Fish tend to ripen their eggs based upon photoperiod (length of day and night periods) and water temperature. As I mentioned earlier, there are strains of rainbow trout that spawn in spring, and others that spawn in fall. You can also really mess up your fish by changing water temperatures and and photoperiod (say inside a building) and get them to spawn earlier than normal or delay until later than normal.

Other fishes have more complex ovaries, and we tend to let them spawn themselves and then collect the fry. A good example is largemouth bass. They have a complex ovary, and eggs of different sizes in the ovary. Even when a female is absolutely ripe, it's hard to squeeze more than a few dozen eggs from her. So, for this group of fishes, we tend to let them do their own thing!

Whew!! This is either too long, or too short!! I could write more, but I suspect this may have answered your initial question???? :-)

Chris -- thanks for helping with the "local" knowledge.

Dave

Thanks Guys for all the answers and advice. I don't really know whether my Bass spawned or not. I hav'nt seen anything of the Bass since I put them in, but I do know that the hundreds of large tadpoles that have been in the lake are no longer there this year (altho there are still many big frogs around and I think that there are fewer smaller goldfish so I think that the Bass must be still around. I do have water flowing into the pond that comes from a ditch.This runs pretty much all year (even in the winter under the ice) It does dry up during the dry spells when there is no rain for weeks. The visability of my pond at the moment is about 18" although in the early spring it is about 30".