Sevan trout

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Species of fish

title: "Sevan trout" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["salmo", "freshwater-fish-of-asia", "endemic-fauna-of-armenia", "fish-described-in-1877"] description: "Species of fish" topic_path: "general/salmo" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevan_trout" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Species of fish ::

| name = Sevan trout | image = Stamp of Armenia m176.jpg | image_caption = | status = CR | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = | taxon = Salmo ischchan | authority = Kessler, 1877

The Sevan trout (Salmo ischchan) is an endemic fish species of Lake Sevan in Armenia, known as ishkhan (իշխան, ) in Armenian. It is a salmonid fish related to the brown trout. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Salmo_ischchan_300140689.jpg" caption="''Salmo ischchan''"] ::

The fish is endangered, because various competitors were introduced into the lake during the Soviet period, including common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) from Lake Ladoga, goldfish (Carassius auratus) and narrow-clawed crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus); and because of lake level change. On the other hand, the Sevan trout itself has been successfully introduced to Issyk Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan.

A resolution by Armenia's Council of Ministers in 1976 stopped the commercial fishing of Sevan trout and organized Sevan National Park. The fish are nowadays also reared in hatcheries.

The Sevan trout has four (or two) distinct strains differing in their breeding time and place, and growth rate:

  • winter bakhtak (Salmo ischchan ischchan)
  • summer bakhtak (Salmo ischchan aestivalis)
  • gegharkuni (Salmo ischchan gegarkuni)
  • bojak (Salmo ischchan danilewskii).

The winter bakhtak is the largest form and can grow to considerable size, up to 90 cm and 15 kg. It breeds within the lake. The summer bakhtak is smaller (

Water level regulation has been destructive for sevan trout reproduction. Currently, the summer bakhtak and gegharkuni are mainly propagated by hatcheries. The winter bakhtak and bojak may be extinct within the lake.

From a study of historical samples, the four strains or forms were not diagnosable by their mitochondrial DNA sequences.

As a whole, the Sevan trout is phylogenetically very close to the Caspian trout, within the brown trout complex.

References

References

  1. Freyhof, J.. (2019). "''Salmo ischchan''".
  2. Gabrielyan, B.K. (2001) {{usurped
  3. [http://www.internevod.com/rus/atlas/ecol/02/22/9.shtml Севанская форель, ишхан, Salmo ischchan Kessler, 1877] www.internevod.com
  4. {{FishBase. Salmo. ischchan. (2011)
  5. Nevertheless, in the checklist of Armenian fish (2020) they were listed as different species.Kuljanishvili, T., G. Epitashvili, J. Freyhof, B. Japoshvili, L. Kalous, B. Levin, N. Mustafayev, S. Ibrahimov, S. Pipoyan and L. Mumladze 2020. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jai.14038 Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia]. Journal of Applied Ichthyology v. 36 (no. 4): 501-514.
  6. (2018). "High-throughput sequencing of the mitochondrial genomes from archived fish scales: an example of the endangered putative species flock of Sevan trout ''Salmo ischchan''". Hydrobiologia.

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salmofreshwater-fish-of-asiaendemic-fauna-of-armeniafish-described-in-1877