Fish no longer around

[BUTLEY]

I was going through some old photos and found some pics of fish that Utah no longer uses. Thought I would share them.


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[TyeDyeTwins]

What type of fish are those?
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[BUTLEY]

They are Brownbows. They put them in Mill Meadow about 17 years ago.
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[Kent]

I was fortunate to catch one (only one) of those. They planted them hoping to find a fish that would not be subject to whirling disease. Pretty fish, but they often developed blindness.
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[PBH]

[quote kentofnsl]Pretty fish, but they often developed blindness.[/quote]

Cataracts to be exact. However, even with the cataracts the brownbows were able to perform every bit as well as the rainbows and splake that were also present in the lake. The reason they stopped producing them was not due to the cataracts, but rather just simple economics with hatchery production.

Take a look at the attached picture, which shows a rainbow (top), brownbow (middle), and splake (bottom) all from Mill Meadow. The fish are the same age, and as you can see the brownbow was in pretty good shape despite the (visible) cataract.




To the original poster: is your bottom picture really a brownbow? It kind of looks like a plain old brown to me.
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[albinotrout]

Looking at your pic it is difficult to tell. What are the most identifying characteristics of the brownbow compared to the rainbow so as to tell them apart?
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[PBH]

[quote albinotrout]Looking at your pic it is difficult to tell. What are the most identifying characteristics of the brownbow compared to the rainbow so as to tell them apart?[/quote]

I don't remember the percentage -- but it was very high. High enough that you could almost distinguish between a rainbow and brownbow simply by looking for a cataract in the eyes.
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[PBH]

[quote PBH]

I don't remember the percentage -- but it was very high. [/quote]

Found it: 95% had cataracts. Pretty distinguishing feature if you ask me.

Lot's of good info here:
http://wildlife.utah.gov/fes/pdf/volume_7-4.pdf
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[BUTLEY]

They were for sure the brownbows. I caught a bunch and a lot of them had the cataracts. They mostly looked like rainbows with a few red spots mixed in.
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[Hookinup]

One of the cooler posts I have seen. Thanks for sharing.
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