Like Travis says different strains may have different growth rates and sterile triploids may even have better performance but triploids actually fare less optimally in marginal water condtions due to their larger red blood cells. Sterile triploids are very common now with hactheries as it precludes the use of brood fish as the operator just orders fertilized eggs that are pressure treated.

That said I don't believe the WVGR is actually a different strain but more of a color morph that breeds true.

Maximum growth for domestic rainbows is about 1.5 inches per month due to selective breeding for over a century. That's plenty of growth if you consider the weight gain that goes along with it.

I can grow brown trout as fast as bows in my flow through pond as temps in the summer are at the top end of their metabolism in the mid to upper sixties F.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 06/24/13 11:05 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.