e-RD Logo
Google
Custom Search
 
e-ReferenceDesk's College and 50 State Learning Resource Guide
 
 

Find Online Colleges

Find Campus Colleges

State Fish
State Fish
  • State Fishes - ALL Listed
  • The 50 US States
Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio. Iowa has an un-official state fish. Other states have designated two Official State Fish, distinguishing them with labels such as Warm water, Coldwater, Saltwater or Marine, Sport, and Commercial.
Nevada Symbols
Nevada Greeting
Nevada Symbols
Animal, Artifact, Bird, Christmas Tree, Colors, Fish, Flag, Flower, Fossil, Gemstone, Grass, March, Metal, Motto, Nicknames, Reptile, Rock, Seal, Semi-precious Gemstone , Slogan, Soil, Song, Tartan, Tree, Tree
  • e-RD |
  • State Resources |
  • 50 States |
  • State Symbols |
  • State Fishes

Nevada State Fish

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Nevada State Fish - Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

(Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi)

Adopted in 1981.

The Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi, was designated the official state fish in 1981.

Description of the Nevada State Fish

It might seem surprising that a trout could survive in fourteen of arid Nevada's seventeen counties. As you might guess, it's a hardy fish, occupying habitats ranging from mountain streams and alpine lakes to seasonal lowland streams and alkaline lakes where no other trout can survive.

Yet the Lahontan cutthroat trout was once even more widespread. It's named for Lake Lahontan, which covered parts of western Nevada and northeastern California during the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age. At the end of the Ice Age, Nevada's climate became more arid. Lake Lahontan and other large Great Basin lakes began drying up, leaving smaller lakes, some of which are too salty for freshwater fishes (like Utah's Great Salt Lake).

Today, the Lahontan cutthroat is the only trout native to west-central Nevada's Lahontan Basin, a part of the much larger Great Basin. The fish was much more abundant before Nevada was settled. It was a primary food source for several Great Basin Indian tribes. Loss of habitat, overfishing, and introduced fishes have greatly depleted populations.

There was even a commercial fishery for Lahontan cutthroats in Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake at the beginning of this century, though it petered out after a few decades. The largest known specimens, weighing more than forty pounds, came from Pyramid Lake, though this stock is now extinct.

Life History

Although coloration is variable, this species is generally heavily marked with large, rounded black spots, more or less evenly distributed over the sides, head, and abdomen. Spawning fish generally develop bright red coloration on the underside of the mandible and on the opercle. In spawning males, coloration is generally more intense than in females.

Lahontan cutthroat trout are obligate but opportunistic stream spawners. Typically, they spawn from April through July, depending on water temperature and flow characteristics. Autumn spawning runs have been reported from some populations. The fish may reproduce more than once, though post-spawning mortality is high (60-90%). Lake residents migrate into streams to spawn, typically in riffles on well washed gravels. The behavior of this subspecies is typical of stream spawning trout; adults court, pair, and deposit and fertilize eggs in a redd dug by the female.


Although the Lahontan cutthroat in Oregon were originally classified as Willow-Whitehorse cutthroat trout, genetic and taxonomic investigations led to its re-classification in 1991 (Williams 1991).

Habitat

The Lahontan cutthroat trout is one subspecies of the wide-ranging cutthroat trout species (O. clarki) that includes at least 14 recognized forms in the western United States. Cutthroat trout have the most extensive range of any inland trout species of western North America, and occur in anadromous, non-anadromous, fluvial, and lacustrine populations (Behnke 1979). Many of the basins in which cutthroat trout occur contain remnants of much more extensive bodies of water which were present during the wetter period of the late Pleistocene epoch (Smith 1978).

These fish are unusually tolerant of both high temperatures (>27 C) and large daily fluctuations (up to 20 C). They are also quite tolerant of high alkalinity (>3000 mg/l) and dissolved solids (>10000 mg/l). They are apparently intolerant of competition or predation by non-native salmonids, and rarely coexist with them (Behnke 1992, LaRivers 1962).

Taxonomic Hierarchy of the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

Kingdom Animalia -- animals
Phylum Chordata
Class Osteichthyes
Order Salmoniformes-- salmons
Family Salmonidae-- salmonids, salmons
Genus Oncorhynchus
Species Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi
State Fishes
State Fish
This is a list of official and *unofficial U.S. state fish: The only states lacking a state fish as of 2008 are Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio.

fish ('fish)
n. pl. fish or fishˇes
1. Any of numerous cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates of the superclass Pisces, characteristically having fins, gills, and a streamlined body and including specifically:
a. Any of the class Osteichthyes, having a bony skeleton.
b. Any of the class Chondrichthyes, having a cartilaginous skeleton and including the sharks, rays, and skates.
2. The flesh of such animals used as food.
3. Any of various primitive aquatic vertebrates of the class Cyclostomata, lacking jaws and including the lampreys and hagfishes.
4.
Any of various unrelated aquatic animals, such as a jellyfish, cuttlefish, or crayfish.
Google
Custom Search
About Site Map Privacy Policy
Campus-based Colleges  Online Schools  College List
Top of Page

© Copyright 2004-2011, Web Marketing Services, Inc. LLC, a Clarksville, VA company. All rights reserved.