Salmonids in aquarium displays

Z

Zoovolunteer

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Despite being a major food source and with a few species extensively bred in aquaculture, many salmonids have restricted ranges and are often threatened. However, I have seen few displays of salmonids, and most of those were rainbow trout. What other salmonids have people seen, and why are so few species shown?

As mostly fairly large species of cold, highly oxygenated water I can see why they might be sometimes problematic to keep in warmer parts of the world, but I would have thought that in northern Europe, much of the USA and Canada providing cold enough water would not be a major difficulty.
 
Several zoos and aquariums in western North America display salmonid species. Oregon Zoo, Seattle Aquarium, Sequoia Park Zoo, Monterey Aquarium, and Woodland Park Zoo all have salmon or trout species on exhibit.
 
As Japan is a powerhouse in eating salmon, there are some salmon display in Japanese aquarium. I personally have seen them in Kyoto, but there are more. I remember there is even a salmon themed aquarium in Hokkaido during my research
 
There are rather a lot of Salmonidae species displayed in European collections, of which I have seen about 8 in captivity myself :) notable collections holding species include Innsbruck Alpenzoo, Zoo Am Meer, Wilhelma and Lakes Aquarium.
 
The only species I've ever seen exhibited are Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, and Brook Trout - all of which are common aquarium fish in my experience.
 
Thanks for responses everyone. I have seen a few displays of salmon, rainbow or brown trout, but the IUCN red list has 13 extinct salmonid species, 2 extinct in the wild, and well over 70 species as Near Threatened up to Critically Endangered, so it seems that charismatic species - most are colourful and impressive fish - may be being overlooked, especially as the impact of commercial exploitation, pollution and habitat destruction on such a familiar group provides a useful educational topic.
 
All Danish aquaria I can think of keep at least a couple of species, with Atlantic salmon and brown trout being the most common. Aqua Akvarium is probably the most speciose - while their exact species roster varies from season to season, there has been a few times where they kept all Danish species of salmonids.
 
Oh, man, I love the Atlantic salmon display at New England Aquarium. I love salmon in general though, so that might be a me thing. I've always wanted to ask about whether or not they breed the salmon and if so, how it's done, but there's rarely any educators around the display, and it often gets overlooked by guests as well. I've spent far too much time at that exhibit trying to get decent pictures of the salmon.
 
I've seen a variety of salmonids in aquaria, including Chinook Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, Rainbow Trout, Atlantic Salmon, Brown Trout, Brook Trout, and Arctic Char. Most are generally kept with little trouble other than cold water and additional aeration.

Additionally here in the states at least, most fish hatcheries are open to the public and the various life cycles can be seen. Some of them could also almost be facilities in their own right, such as the one in The Dalles OR, which has a very large pond for some enormous sturgeon in addition to rearing ponds for a couple varieties of salmonids.
 
according to a swedish news article in 2010, Universeum had Atlantic Salmon for a while.
 
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has farmed rainbow and cutthroat trout in their grizzly bear pool.
 
The magnificient Huchen (Hucho hucho) and the beautiful grayling (Thymallus thymallus) are kept in a few European aquaria and zoos. A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to see courting wild huchen in the Isar river right next to Tierpark Hellabrunn.

Several species of the Salmo and the Salvelinus genus are pretty common in European zoos and wildlife parks, often kept in the moats of zoo exhibits and supplied by local fish farms. The Golden rainbow trout, a yellow colour morph of the rainbow trout, in particular is quite popular among visitors.
 
I know the Aquarium of the Pacific has an entire exhibit dedicated to Southern California Steelheads. Some aquariums use golden trout as enrichment for the cetaceans.
 
Otaru Aquarium in Hokkaido, Japan has 5-6 species. Cherry salmon and whitespotted char are common in Japanese zoos and aquariums. Osaka Kaiyukan has Arctic char. Also, the critically endangered Sakhalin Taimen (a giant trout) is kept by a handful of institutions, including Otaru Aquarium, Toba Aquarium, and Aqua Totto Gifu.
 
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