Arctic Grayling
Thymallus arcticus
Arctic grayling 3
A very unique salmonid to have here in Colorado is the Arctic grayling. They are very uncommon for sure and if you want to find them have to do some research as they only live in some of the highest alpine lakes where the Colorado Parks and Wildlife has stocked them. One common lake to find them is joe wright reservoir where the cpw has their spawning operations to keep this unique fish in Colorado. They don’t grow very big here In Colorado maybe topping out at 20 inches being the state record with just about any over 14 inches being considered a big one. A very colorful fish with their sail like dorsal fin sporting just about all the colors of the rainbow. They feed on small insects and are keen on taking bugs off the surface in the lakes the grayling live in. As they are a grayling, they require the highest quality of cold water habitats. having clear cold water a must for these fish to live as they need the coldest water of our alpine lakes to live in.
Sources and Credits
- (c) gcmorath, all rights reserved, uploaded by gcmorath
- (c) Bruce Deagle, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Bruce Deagle
- Adapted by gcmorath from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymallus_arcticus
