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That's a wild looking trout! My girlfriend and I have caught probably a hundred or so of the little stockers in the ponds around Louisville this year, and we've noticed that some were darker than usual, and a few had more teeth than usual, but nothing as dramatic as that! I certainly haven't seen any with teeth on their tongue. I'm gonna keep an eye out for that this fall. Please let us know what the biologist has to say about it. You might also try contacting somebody at the hatchery.
Did that fish have an orange "slash" at the base of its throat? I didn't know this, but there's a trout called a "cutthroat" that is said to closely resemble a rainbow, but it has teeth on the base of its tongue. It also will hybridize with rainbows.
http://fwp.mt.gov/fieldguide/detail_AFCHA02088.aspx
[QUOTE=RoadToad;295487]Did that fish have an orange "slash" at the base of its throat? I didn't know this, but there's a trout called a "cutthroat" that is said to closely resemble a rainbow, but it has teeth on the base of its tongue. It also will hybridize with rainbows.
http://fwp.mt.gov/fieldguide/detail_AFCHA02088.aspx[/QUOTE]
I looked into that when I was reading up trying to figure out what was going on with the fish. There is no orange or red color anywhere on the fish like a cutthroat would have.
Curious to know exactly what the problem in the genes is with this fish....... Remember the Old Saying...."Boy the Fish are Bite'n today"....lol:D
*** UPDATE ****
I didn't receive any responses back from the emails I sent with pictures of the fish so I went down to the Fish & Wildlife main office to find someone to talk to.
The answer I was given was the fish was indeed a rainbow trout and the teeth are normal. What makes the teeth look out of place is that the fish has a Saprolegnia fungus infection that has eaten away the flesh around the mouth. With no gum line the teeth appear huge when in fact they are normal size.
This is interesting. After I got my answer in person I checked my email and had a response from one of the fish biologists.
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I am a fisheries biologist who does research on trout. It does seem
like the fish does have some necrosis around the mouth that might be
making the teeth appear more prominent. However, I do agree that this
fish does have larger teeth than usual and the teeth on the tongue are
quite surprising. I have forwarded the pictures you sent to several
other trout biologists and they have not seen anything like it either.
I have not yet heard a response from the manager of the federal trout
hatchery where this fish was raised. It would not surprise me if he
doesn't see this on occasion. I would speculate with him raising
millions of trout that he may occasionally see strange things like this
fish.
This fish is undoubtedly just a rare morphological variant, however not
something that needs further investigation from our department. Just a
good fish story that you can tell and you have the pictures to prove
it!
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
RECORD!!!????
I got back two more responses about the fish. It sounds like I caught one pretty rare trout.
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See the comment below from our Geneticist. As you can see it is probably just a freak of nature. Keep in mind we rear 2,000,000 trout per year. I have been involved with rearing salmonids for over 15 years and have never seen one like this. I would say 1 out of 30,000,000 is just a very rare occurrence. If we continue to see more of these, we would need to do some research to determine if there is a genetic problem, some environmental factor causing the problem, or something else.
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention.
James Gray
Project Leader
Wolf Creek NFH
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My best guess is that this fish has some type of defect (obviously). Defects are abnormalities in skeleton, body form, and body functions. Abnormalities may result from genetic or environmental causes and in the case of this fish, it is unclear what caused this defect. There are many environmental factors such as disease and diet that could produce such abnormalities. On the other hand genetic abnormalities often occur when genes are missing, in excess, mutated or in the wrong location (translocation). A few genes can directly cause an abnormality, however, these are rare. Usually, these genes are recessive, meaning two must be present to cause an abnormality. For example syndactyly, which refers to the fusion of the two toes of the foot in the Aberdeen Angus breed of cattle is caused by a recessive gene. Thus while this fish probably has some type of defect, it is difficult to discern whether it is environmental or genetic and probably more difficult to figure out what exactly caused the defect in the first place
Sorry I can't be of more help
Greg
Gregory R. Moyer, PhD
Regional Geneticist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Warm Springs Fish Technology Center
5308 Spring Street
This is a terrific and informative thread. Thanks for sharing it all with us Adam!
[QUOTE=adam7456;295310]I was fishing a tailwater over the weekend and caught two rainbows. The first was like every other rainbow I have caught. The second one was darker and came with a mouth full of teeth, including teeth on its tongue. Every field guide that I have come across specifically says "Rainbow trout do not have teeth on their tongue" yet here one is. Has anyone else seen anything like this?
[img]http://lakewoode.com/rainbow.jpg[/img]
[img]http://lakewoode.com/rainbow_teeth.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Submitted the pics to Fish and Wildlife.. Here is answer in just 45 minutes..
Stephen,
See the comment below from our Geneticist. As you can see it is probably just a freak of nature. Keep in mind we rear 2,000,000 trout per year. I have been involved with rearing salmonids for over 15 years and have never seen one like this. I would say 1 out of 30,000,000 is just a very rare occurrence. If we continue to see more of these, we would need to do some research to determine if there is a genetic problem, some environmental factor causing the problem, or something else.
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention.
James Gray
Project Leader
Wolf Creek NFH
My best guess is that this fish has some type of defect (obviously). Defects are abnormalities in skeleton, body form, and body functions. Abnormalities may result from genetic or environmental causes and in the case of this fish, it is unclear what caused this defect. There are many environmental factors such as disease and diet that could produce such abnormalities. On the other hand genetic abnormalities often occur when genes are missing, in excess, mutated or in the wrong location (translocation). A few genes can directly cause an abnormality, however, these are rare. Usually, these genes are recessive, meaning two must be present to cause an abnormality. For example syndactyly, which refers to the fusion of the two toes of the foot in the Aberdeen Angus breed of cattle is caused by a recessive gene. Thus while this fish probably has some type of defect, it is difficult to discern whether it is environmental or genetic and probably more difficult to figure out what exactly caused the defect in the first place
Sorry I can't be of more help
Greg
Gregory R. Moyer, PhD
Regional Geneticist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Warm Springs Fish Technology Center
5308 Spring Street
I know this post is old but thought this may be helpful...May be a cutthroat trout or possibly a "cutbow". From my understanding resident rainbow trout have slightly smaller teeth & NONE on their tongue. Meanwhile rainbow trout's close cousin the cutthroat trout have a bit larger teeth & also some wicked smaller teeth ON their tongue. YES all cutthroats naturally have teeth on their tongues where rainbows do not. Given this fact though rainbows and cutthroats are often found in the same waters and are capable of & sometimes do interbreed creating hybrids called "cutbows". We have both species where i live in the pacific northwest & ive heard of local cutbows too but never caught 1 forsure myself so no pic to submit myself srry. I would imagine some cutbows have teeth on their tongues & some dont because of hybrid phenotype variation but idk forsure. Its always interesting to see the teeth on these guys...the steelhead & king salmon too. During spawning especially the male kings can get some gnarly fangs man!
When it comes to cutthroats, rainbows, & "cutbows" try to believe me when i say proper classification by appearance can just be much harder at times than one would think. Even professionals can make mistakes & i know of a sport fisherman here in norcal who got a ticket for a legal catch because the onsite game warden couldnt properly identify the fish. The fisherman took it to court to prove his case & won lol. These fish are all very closely related & only in their true spawning colors do real bright obvious variations stand out. If it looks like a rainbow but has teeth on its tongue its most likely a "cutbow" even with no apparent red slash under jaw or other obvious cutthroat attributes. Remember "cutbows" are hybrids so depending on the specimen it may look more like a rainbow or maybe more like a cutthroat. Or even still it may be a nice blend of both. Another way to tell the two species apart is with rainbows the mouth line stops right about at the fish's eye & may go just to the eyes edge but never beyond.... with cutthroats the mouth line goes all the way to the eye and its edge & beyond - sometimes just a bit past but its typically pretty pronounced & should be obvious. Of course this rule of thumb does not really apply to a hybrid but it can still be useful when doing your fish id. Cutthroats have bigger mouths & bigger teeth & teeth on their tongues & they typically strike bait n lures hard.