Hydrobiologia

, Volume 259, Issue 3, pp 179–185 | Cite as

Variation in the summer diet of age-0 brown trout in a regulated mountain stream

  • Wayne A. Hubert
  • Douglas D. Harris
  • Howard A. Rhodes
Article
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Abstract

We describe the age-0 brown trout (Salmo trutta) collected from a mountain stream downstream from a reservoir in June, July, and August 1990. Sample sites were 1, 12, and 20 km downstream from the reservoir at elevations of 2840, 2600, and 2230 m above mean sea level. The mean length of fish in the samples increased with downstream progression and from June through August. Zooplankton predominated the diet of fish collected in June from the most upstream sampling site, while Diptera larvae predominated the diet of fish from more downstream sampling sites in June. In July and August, the diet of fish from the upstream site was predominated by Diptera larvae, while the diet of fish from the other two sites was predominated by Ephemeroptera nymphs. Variation in diet among sampling sites and sampling months was related not only to increasing fish sizes over the summer but also to the availability of zooplankton flushed from the reservoir.

Key words

Subalpine stream brown trout Salmo trutta L. diet macroinvertebrate 
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1993

Authors and Affiliations

  • Wayne A. Hubert
    • 1
  • Douglas D. Harris
    • 1
  • Howard A. Rhodes
    • 2
  1. 1.Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research UnitUniversity of WyomingLaramieUSA
  2. 2.Freshwater EcologistLaramieUSA

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