Rainbow Trout With a Mouth Full of Teeth!

[BigPoppy]

I used to live in Louisiana, and we caught alot of salt water specks, (trout), had mouths like that but not with the rainbow colors they were darker and they could live in brackish water, not exactly salt water, not exactly fresh water. You may very well have a new sub spiecies there hope you froze that bad boy!!
PS note to self DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT THUMB LIP THAT NEXT TROUT WITH OUT LOOKING FIRST!!

[fishbum]

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?


http://lakewoode.com/rainbow.jpg

http://lakewoode.com/rainbow_teeth.jpg

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