Trout | Types, Habits & Habitats (2024)

trout, any of several prized game and food fishes of the family Salmonidae (order Salmoniformes) that are usually restricted to freshwater, though a few types migrate to the sea between spawnings. Trout are closely related to salmon. They are important sport fishes and are often raised in hatcheries for later transferral to habitable bodies of water.

Trout belong mainly to two genera: Oncorhynchus and Salvelinus. The genus Oncorhynchus includes the salmon as well as several trout species, while the genus Salvelinus contains several trout species that may be regarded as chars. Members of the two genera are chiefly distinguished by differences in body colouring, the shape of the vomer bone in the roof of the mouth, and the teeth. Chars tend to have red- or cream-coloured spots on a darker-coloured body. They are further distinguished by teeth set on the head (front) of the vomer, not on its shaft. Members of Salvelinus whose vomer is boat-shaped rather than flat are properly called char (q.v.). Oncorhynchus trout tend to have red or black spots on a lighter-coloured body; their teeth are sparser and are on the front and shaft of the vomer. Several trout species that were formerly classified in the genus Salmo are now placed in the genus Oncorhynchus; the brown trout is the only trout still classified as Salmo.

These distinctions notwithstanding, the trout remain among the most difficult fishes to classify. The confusion stems from the aforementioned irregularities in anatomy and from great variation in colour and habits. The classification of species into genera remains problematic because of the ease of hybridization among trout and the intermixing of introduced and native species.

Trout usually live in cool freshwater, often among submerged objects or in riffles and deep pools. They are native to the Northern Hemisphere but have been widely introduced to other areas. Their diet consists of insects, small fishes and their eggs, and crustaceans. Trout spawn between fall and spring and bury their eggs in a gravel nest scooped out by the female on a streambed. The few forms that migrate to sea between spawnings return to streams at this time. The eggs take two to three months to hatch, and the newly hatched trout, or fry, become known as fingerlings when they leave the nest and begin feeding on plankton.

The genus Salvelinus contains the brook trout, Dolly Varden trout, lake trout (qq.v.), and bull trout. These are all species of chars. The genus Oncorhynchus contains the cutthroat trout, rainbow trout (qq.v.), and the golden trout. The golden trout (O. aguabonita) is a mountain trout of clear waters in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The brown trout (q.v.), Salmo trutta, is a common European trout that has been widely introduced into suitable waters around the world. Salmon trout is a common name for the brown, lake, cutthroat, and sea-run rainbow trout. Sea trout is the common name for various trout and chars that enter the sea.