The Trout Population of a Nova Scotia Lake as Affected by Habitable Water, Poisoning of the Shallows and Stocking

1955 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 618-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. R. Hayes ◽  
D. A. Livingstone

A stocking, partial-poisoning and creel census experiment was carried out on a stratified lake in an effort to increase the crop of speckled trout, Salvelinus fontinalis. Except for a single year in which adult trout were planted, a negligible proportion of the introduced trout was recaptured. Application annually for five years of about one-half part per million of derris dust to the three-meter zone of the lake during summer stratification produced a heavy kill of coarse fish without harming the trout. Shiner, Notemigonus crysoleucas, perch, Perca flavescens and chub, Semotilus atromaculatus were eliminated from the lake. Sucker, Catostomus commersoni, was drastically reduced. Killifish, Fundulus diaphanus, and eel, Anguilla bostoniensis, were not appreciably reduced, despite large annual kills. Smelt, Osmerus mordax, stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, were killed in very small numbers during one or more poisoning years.Three independent estimates of the effect of the experiment upon the trout production of the lake are put forward: (a) The decrease in mass of the fish competing with trout for food, when calculated from the annual kills, amounts to 40 kg. The pre-poisoning mass of trout was 85 kg., calculated from a capture-recapture census. Thus if trout replaced its competitors quantitatively, the standing crop of trout would be increased to 150%. (b) The volume-time of water (i.e. percentage of the lake volume multiplied by the fraction of a year) which would be made available to trout by removing competitors from the part of the lake where summer temperature conditions would limit trout to between 50 and 100% of their full activity is calculated. If trout occupied this volume-time at the same density as they did the more favourable water, the standing crop of trout would be increased to 240%. (c) The total yield of the lake to anglers showed a steady increase following poisoning, to about 230% of the control value, or from less than one pound per acre to nearly two pounds per acre. These three estimates agree very well, considering the errors inherent in the method.

1974 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1135-1139 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hanek ◽  
Kalman Molnar

In 224 fish of nine species from Matamek River system 38 genera of parasites were recovered (12 Protozoa, 3 Monogenea, 6 Digenea, 6 Cestoda, 6 Nematoda, 2 Acanthocephala, 3 Copepoda). Six genera of parasites were noted in Salmo salar, Salvelinus fontinalis harbored 17 genera, S. alpinus 5 genera, Osmerus mordax 4 genera, Anguilla rostrata 9 genera, Catostomus catostomus 8 genera, Apeltes quadracus 1 genus, Gasterosteus aculeatus 12 genera, and Pungitius pungitius 9 genera.


1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (7) ◽  
pp. 1612-1617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Magnan ◽  
Gérard J. FitzGerald

The spatial distribution, food habits, and growth of an allopatric brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) population was compared with a trout population coexisting with creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus). Sympatric trout differed in spatial distribution and food habits from allopatric trout suggesting a niche shift of the trout when they live with creek chub. Also, although there is a certain overlap in diet and spatial distribution, sympatric populations of the two species differed on these resource axes. However, growth of sympatric trout is not clearly related to the presence or absence of the creek chub, suggesting that factors other than interspecific competiton may affect growth in the seven study lakes.


1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (8) ◽  
pp. 1548-1555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Magnan ◽  
Gérard J. FitzGerald

When brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis Mitchill, are in allopatry in oligotrophic Québec lakes, they feed largely on macrobenthic invertebrates. However, when brook charr cooccur with creek chub, Semotilus atromaculatus Mitchill, they feed largely on zooplankton. In the present study, laboratory experiments showed that creek chub were more effective than brook charr in searching for hidden, patchily distributed prey. The searching efficiency of an individual chub feeding in a group was improved through social facilitation. In contrast, the high level of intraspecific aggression observed in brook charr prevents the formation of such feeding groups. In the laboratory, brook charr were able to displace creek chub from the food source because of interspecific aggression. Data are presented showing that chub are morphologically better adapted than charr to feed on benthos (subterminal orientation of the mouth and protrusible premaxillae), while the charr are better adapted than chub to feed on zooplankton (gill raker structure). Differences in feeding behaviour, morphology, and relative abundance between these species appear to be important in the observed niche shift of brook charr in nature.


1968 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 2643-2649 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. A. McDermott ◽  
A. H. Berst

Preliminary sampling revealed the presence of furunculosis disease in the resident brook trout population of the southern Ontario trout stream used in this study.Two plantings of marked yearling brook trout were made in the study area in 1966; one in the spring, and the other in the fall. The spring planting consisted of 1000 brook trout with a predetermined incidence of furunculosis infection and an equal number of trout with no evidence of infection. The fall planting consisted of 2000 brook trout with a known incidence of furunculosis infection.The stream was electrofished periodically during the 2-year period after the first planting. A total of 445 brook trout (140 of the planted hatchery stock, and 305 resident trout) and 127 fish of associated species were captured and examined for the presence of Aeromonas salmonicida, causative agent of furunculosis.Recovery rates of the "infected" and "noninfected" stocks of brook trout were similar, and there was no evidence of transmission of A. salmonicida from the infected fish to the control fish, nor the resident population of brook trout and other species of fish captured.


1974 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. B. Ayles

Estimates of average egg diameter and average number of eggs per female from a brood stock of Salvelinus fontinalis × S. namaycush (splake) hybrids were 0.468 cm and 1169 eggs, respectively. Variation in egg size between females was attributable to variation in both size and age of the fish, whereas differences in fecundity were attributed only to differences in female size. At a given size a splake had more and larger eggs than have been reported for lake trout. The significance of the findings is discussed in relation to the reestablishment of a viable trout population in Lake Huron.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Bérubé Tellier ◽  
Paul E. Drevnick ◽  
Andrea Bertolo

<p>Ephippium pigmentation is a plastic trait which can be related to a trade-off between visual predation pressure and better protection of cladoceran eggs against different types of stress. Experimental studies showed that planktivorous fish exert a greater predation pressure on individuals carrying darker ephippia, but little is known about the variation of ephippium pigmentation along gradients of fish predation pressure in natural conditions. For this study, our experimental design included four small boreal lakes with known fish assemblages. Two of the lakes have viable brook trout (<em>Salvelinus fontinalis</em>) populations, whereas the other two lakes experienced brook trout extinctions during the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Cladoceran ephippia were extracted from sediment cores at layers corresponding to the documented post- extinction phase (1990's) and from an older layer (1950's) for which the brook trout population status is not known precisely. Our first objective was to determine whether brook trout extinction has a direct effect on both ephippium pigmentation and size. Our second objective was to give a preliminary assessment of the status of brook trout populations in the 1950's by comparing the variation in ephippia traits measured from this layer to those measured in the 1990's, for which the extinction patterns are well known. Cost-effective image analysis was used to assess variation in pigmentation levels in ephippia. This approach provided a proxy for the amount of melanin invested in each ephippium analysed. Our study clearly shows that ephippium pigmentation may represent a better indicator of the presence of fish predators than ephippium size, a trait that showed a less clear pattern of variation between lakes with and without fish. For the 1990's period, ephippia from fishless lakes were darker and showed a slight tendency to be larger than ephippia from lakes with brook trout. However, no clear differences in either ephippium size or pigmentation were observed between the 1990's and 1950's layers within each lake. This suggests that brook trout extinction already occurred before the 1950’s, or that brook trout population abundance was already extremely low before and after the 1990’s. Our preliminary study shows that ephippium pigmentation can be used as a tool to quickly assess present and past predation levels on zooplankton when only sediment samples are available.</p>


1973 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1398-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. O’Connor ◽  
G. Power

Competition and predation by American eels (Anguilla rostrata) is believed to have substantially reduced trout population and production in Bill Lake. Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) occurred at densities of 7/ha; biomass of 0.34 kg/ha and annual production was estimated at 0.21 kg/ha. This is considerably less than values for trout density, biomass, and production in other lakes in the Matamek watershed from which eels appear to be absent. Eels in Bill Lake are old and large but not numerous, in keeping with their apparent position as top carnivores.


1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. G. Lester ◽  
H. W. Huizinga

Forty-two perch eyes (Perca flavescens) infected with metacercariae of Diplostomum adamsi were fed to a herring gull (Larus argentatus). Eighty adults were recovered from the intestine 10 days later. They were characterized by their small size (1.5 to 2.1 mm), asymmetrical anterior testis, and the absence of vitellaria in forebody anterior to the middle of the ventral sucker.Eggs of D. adamsi passed by the gull embryonated in 22 days at 22 °C and hatched when exposed to light. Miracidia penetrated snails of the species Lymnaea elodes and L. stagnalis. Forty days later straight-tailed cercariae with six pairs of caudal bodies were released from both lymnaeids. They penetrated and developed in P. flavescens but not in Salvelinus namaycush, Catostomus commersoni, Semotilus atromaculatus, or Carassius auratus. In P. flavescens, metacercariae were found in clusters in the peripheral retina, in a cavity between the photoreceptor cells and the pigment epithelium. The photoreceptor cells were disorganized but not destroyed, unlike those in the eyes of Gasterosteus aculeatus parasitized by D. scudderi.


1970 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1656-1661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert T. Lackey

Seasonal depth distributions of landlocked Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), landlocked alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus), and American smelt (Osmerus mordax) were determined monthly in Echo Lake, Maine, using vertical and horizontal gillnets.Salmon were wide-ranging fish, but generally not captured in very shallow or very deep water. Brook trout were primarily an inshore species, not often captured in water deeper than 25 ft, and nearly always found close to the lake bottom. The majority of captured alewives were taken from shallow to middepths (0–30 ft) in summer and fall and in deep water during winter and spring. Smelts were widely distributed, but the majority were captured in water deeper than 30 ft every month.No clear temperature or dissolved oxygen preference could be shown for any of the four species.


1984 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Jacques Frenette ◽  
Julian J. Dodson

To present evidence of acid-induced stress, we studied the population structure and distribution of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in acidified Lac Tantaré, Quebec. Trout greater than 21 cm (FL) represented only 16.2 and 10% of the population sampled in 1979 and 1980, respectively. Survival rates of trout from 1979 to 1980 indicated higher survival among individuals > 25 cm, mortality occurring primarily among fish of 13–25 cm. The marked decline in numbers of fish occurring at 21 cm coincided with the size at which 50% of the female trout population reached sexual maturity, suggesting that postspawning mortality contributes to the high mortality observed among these fish. Comparisons of population and individual growth rates revealed that smaller fish of age-classes 1 to 5 suffer higher mortality than do the larger individuals of these age-classes, implicating mortality agents other than those related to spawning. We provide evidence to support the hypothesis that the most probable cause of mortality is size-related differential exposure to toxic stress whereby small brook trout (< 25 cm) are found in lake areas (brooks) exhibiting the most potentially toxic combination of pH and aluminum, thus enhancing the exposure of the most susceptible part of the population to toxic stress. Large brook trout [Formula: see text] are found in the "safest" lake areas (springs), thus diminishing the exposure of the least susceptible part of the population to toxic stress and enhancing survival. Female trout exhibit delayed sexual maturity relative to other Quebec populations, attaining 50% maturity at age 3 and a length of 21–24 cm such that the major part of the population's reproductive effort is provided by those fish representing only 15% of the population in 1979 and 1980. During the October spawning season, 20% of potential spawners exhibited retarded oogenesis. These reductions in reproductive effort and changes in spawning site selection provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that recruitment failure may be occurring in the Tantaré brook trout population.


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