Salmonidae

Brook trout

Salvelinus fontinalis

Blue haloed red stars through cold clear creeks

• Black
• Brown
• Orange
• Silver
• Temperate
• Northern Hemisphere
• Regional distribution
• Freshwater fish
• Fusiform
• Large
• Temperate fish

Adorned with some of the most intricate markings found among freshwater fishes, the brook trout is a prized native charr inhabiting the cool, pristine headwaters of eastern North America. Its olive-green to charcoal back is decorated with pale, worm-like wavy vermiculations that camouflage the fish beneath dancing surface ripples. The sides transition into lighter tones speckled with creamy yellow dots and scattered crimson spots encased within delicate sky-blue halos. A definitive field mark is visible on the lower fins, where the pelvic, pectoral, and anal fins feature an immaculate snow-white leading margin backed sharply by a jet-black stripe. Native to spring-fed mountain creeks, cold alpine lakes, and coastal tributaries from eastern Canada through the Appalachian range to northern Georgia, it requires clean, cold water strictly below twenty degrees Celsius with saturated oxygen. It acts as a sensitive environmental barometer for watershed integrity, feeding opportunistically on mayfly nymphs, stoneflies, terrestrial insects, and small minnows. Maximum recorded total length attains eighty-six centimetres.

Sources: US Fish & Wildlife Service — Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis