HABITAT

There are at least three distinct types of habitat which the rainbow uses. It lives in inland streams and lakes, and in large and small rivers that have access to the Pacific Ocean. In some streams and lakes it lives its entire life cycle in the same environment. But when it has access to salt water or any large body of cold water, the rainbow is often anadromous. The adults, or steelheads, only enter the streams to spawn. But the resulting young fish spend one to three years in the streams before migrating downstream to big water.

Distribution

The rainbow trout is native to the streams of the Pacific Ocean (from Alaska to Mexico) where many varieties or subspecies have developed. The eggs of the rainbow can easily be transported. Because of this, different strains have been distributed all over the world.

The first rainbow trout was brought to the Great Lakes area in 1874 by New York fish culturist Seth Green when he incubated McCloud River rainbows from California in his Caledonia hatchery. Since then, many other introductions of rainbows of different genetic stocks have been made into the Great Lakes. They've thrived and their future there seems solid.

Few other fish have been transplanted from their original range more than the rainbow trout. It can now be found in such diverse places as the Great Lakes, the Finger Lakes of New York State, Chile, Great Britain, Europe, Africa, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.

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