Salmo ciscaucasicus

Salmo ciscaucasicus is a species of fish in the salmon family (Salmonidae ) that is found in Azerbaijan along the northwest coast of the Caspian Sea and the Volga and the Urals.

Features

Salmo ciscaucasicus reaches a length of up to 1.3 meters. The height of the body is 15-20 % of standard length, head height 59-65 % of head length. The upper jaw reaches the height of the rear end of the eye.

Way of life

There are anadromous migratory, colonizing lakes and remaining life in small streams forms ( " sea trout ", " lake trout " and " trout "). The anadromous migratory forms penetrate into depth about 50 meters in front of the Caspian Sea. Juveniles and " trout " feed primarily on various invertebrates, large migrating animals feed mainly on fish and large crustaceans. Sexual maturity is reached with three to five years. Among females a year later than in the males Originally, the spawning migration took place in two moves. Some of the animals wandered in late summer with the highlight of the walk in October and spawned from the same fall and returned in December back into the sea. Another part emigrated from December to February and spawned in the coming winter after a 10 to 12 -month river stay. The animals also eat during the trek. The spawning grounds are located in high altitude streams. The juveniles migrated to two to four years into the sea, where they were up to four years. sexually mature animals spawned in the Terek probably only once, but otherwise up to four times. Today the spawning migration and the brain drain of young animals is largely prevented by dams into the sea, so that the conservation of the species by site- faithful populations depends.

Threat

The species as a whole is considered not threatened, which is anadromous migrating form but probably extinct. Some authors see this as not conspecific with the local faithful forms so that Salmo ciscaucasicus would probably be extinct and the remaining populations should be conducted under a different name.

Swell

• * Maurice Kottelat, Jörg Freyhof: Handbook of European Freshwater Fishes. Publications Kottelat, Cornol 2007, ISBN 978-2-8399-0298-4, pp. 427-428.