Subclass Neopterygii Superorder Protacanthopterygii Scientific name Salvelinus Higher classification Salmoninae | Infraclass Teleostei Conservation status Vulnerable | |
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Lower classifications Similar | ||
Arctic char fish salvelinus alpinus seesaibling r ding r ye nieri fjeld rred
Salvelinus is a genus of salmonid fish often called char or charr; some Species are called "trout". Salvelinus is a member of the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. The genus has a northern circumpolar distribution, and most of its members are typically cold-water fish that primarily inhabit fresh waters. Many species also migrate to the sea, however.
Contents
- Arctic char fish salvelinus alpinus seesaibling r ding r ye nieri fjeld rred
- Brook trout salvelinus fontinalis
- Species diversity
- Circumpolar
- Europe
- Asia
- North America
- Hybrids
- References
Most char may be identified by light-cream, pink, or red spots over a darker body. Scales tend to be small, with 115-200 along the lateral line. The pectoral, pelvic, anal, and the lower aspect of caudal fins are trimmed in snow white or cream leading edges.
Many members of this genus are popular sport fish, and a few, such as the lake trout (S. namaycush), are the object of commercial fisheries and aquaculture. Occasionally, such fish escape and become invasive species.
Deepwater char are small species of char living below 80 m in the deep areas of certain lakes. They are highly sensitive to changes in the quality of the water and some species, such as Salvelinus neocomensis and Salvelinus profundus, were driven recently to extinction.
Brook trout salvelinus fontinalis
Species diversity
As with other salmonid genera, the delimitation of species in Salvelinus is controversial. FishBase in 2015 listed 54 species or subspecies in this genus, many of which have very narrow local distributions. Fourteen localised species are listed from the British Isles alone, although these traditionally, and still by the national conservation and fisheries authorities, are all considered to represent the widespread Arctic charr (S. alpinus). Twenty species are listed from the Asian part of Russia, including several localised taxa from in each of the Kamchatka, Chukotka and Taimyr peninsulas. One of these is the long-finned char, which phylogenetically is part of the Salvelinus group although it has been so far classified into another genus Salvethymus.
The Arctic char (S. alpinus) is the most broadly distributed Salvelinus species. It has a circumpolar distribution, and it is considered the most northern of all freshwater fishes. In North America, five relatively well defined species are present, which, apart from the Arctic char, comprise the brook trout (S. fontinalis), bull trout (S. confluentus), Dolly Varden trout (S. malma) and lake trout (S. namaycush).
This listing presents the taxa recognised in FishBase grouped by geography:
Circumpolar
Europe
Scotland and adjacent islands:
England and Wales:
Ireland:
Iceland and Atlantic islands:
Fennoscandia and Northwest Russia: