Salvelinus elgyticus

Salvelinus elgyticus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Salvelinus
Species: S. elgyticus
Binomial name
Salvelinus elgyticus
(Viktorovsky & Glubokovksy, 1981)

Salvelinus elgyticus, also known as small-mouth char (Russian: малоротая палия), is a species of char found in the Elgygytgyn Lake in Eastern Siberia.

Habitat and description

This cold water fish is named after Elgygytgyn Lake located in Chukotka, Russian Federation, the only place where it is found.[1] Together with the long-finned char it is endemic to this remote impact crater lake, being able to live in its environmentally very harsh conditions. The water in the depths of the lake where the small-mouth char lives is extremely cold, barely 2 degrees above freezing point. The lake is frozen about ten months every year, between September and July and some years it doesn't even fully thaw. This fish spends most of the year in total darkness.[2]

It is a small char species, dark colored with light spots, reaching a maximum length of just over 23 cm. Little is known about its habits and life cycle.[3]

Salvelinus elgyticus is considered a threatened species by some authors,[4] but it has not been yet evaluated by IUCN.

References

External links