Lenoks, otherwise known as Asiatic trout or Manchurian trout,James Card:
Fly fishing in South Korea.
' Retrieved 22 June 2015. are

salmonid Salmonidae (, ) is a family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon (both Atlantic a ...

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Brachymystax'', native to rivers and lakes in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, wider

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

(including

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

Northern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions that display certain differences in terms of their geography, demographics, economy, and culture. Extent The Qinling, Qinling–Daba Mountains serve as the transition zone ...

and

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

.Kartavtseva, I.V.; Ginatulina, L.K.; Nemkova, G.A.; and Shedko, S.V. (2013).
Chromosomal study of the lenoks, Brachymystax (Salmoniformes, Salmonidae) from the South of the Russian Far East.
'' Journal of Species Research 2(1): 91–98.

Species

There are four species in this genus, of which three are listed by

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

: * '' Brachymystax lenok'' (

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

, 1773) – sharp-snouted lenok * '' Brachymystax savinovi'' Mitrofanov, 1959 * '' Brachymystax tumensis'' T. Mori, 1930 – blunt-snouted lenok A fourth species, '' Brachymystax tsinlingensis'' S. C. Li, 1966, was revalidated in 2015. Traditionally, only ''B. lenok'' was recognized, including both sharp-snouted and blunt-snouted forms. Based on differences in

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

and

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

, the blunt-snouted form was split off as a separate species, ''B. tumensis''.Bo, M. A.; and Jiang, Zuo-fa (2007). ''Genetic diversity and relationship between two species of Brachymystax in Wusuli River revealed by microsatellites.'' Journal of Fishery Sciences of China 14: 39–45.Froufe, E.; Alekseyev, S.; Alexandrino, P.; and Weiss, S. (2008). ''The evolutionary history of sharp- and blunt-snouted lenok (Brachymystax lenok (Pallas, 1773)) and its implications for the paleo-hydrological history of Siberia.'' BMC Evolutionary Biology 8: 40. Hybrids between these two are known. The third species, ''B. savinovi'', is sometimes considered a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''B. lenok''. The name ''B. savinovi'' has occasionally been used for the blunt-snouted lenok,Ratschan, C. (2013).
Trout's Siberian Siblings
'. Chasing Silver 1: 86–96. but this is incorrect.

Appearance

Lenoks can be sharp-snouted (''B. lenok'') or blunt-snouted (''B. tumensis''). Traditionally both these were included in ''B. lenok'', but today they are generally recognized as separate. They are relatively round in shape, and speckled with dark brown spots. Their ventrals are usually colored a reddish hue, and their pectoral fins yellowish. They weigh up to ,Ibex: and can reach a total length of .

Habitat, range and status

Lenoks tend to live in rivers of any sort, but usually upstream, where the water is colder.Cherrytrout: They are also found in lakes such as Baikal. As currently defined, the sharp-snouted lenok (''B. lenok'') is widespread in central and eastern Russia, and also found widely in northern

, locally in northeastern

( Irtysh Basin) and northeastern China ( Amur Basin). The blunt-snouted lenok (''B. tumensis'') is found widely in southeastern Russia and more locally in northeastern and central parts of the country, as well as northeastern Mongolia (Amur Basin), northern China and Korea. Although the two generally are found in separate areas, there are also regions where their ranges overlap such as the Amur Basin. ''Brachymystax savinovi'' is found in Markakol Lake and adjacent rivers in eastern Kazakhstan. The recently revalidated '' Brachymystax tsinlingensis'' is distributed in streams in the

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

and

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

basins in the Qinling Mountains of China. Though overall widespread, lenoks in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

are now on the verge of extinction due to deforestation and they have also declined in China.Yingzhe, X.; Yan, S.; and Yiyu, C. (2006). ''DNA sequence variation in the mitochondrial control region of lenok (Brachymystax lenok) populations in China.'' Chinese Biodiversity 14(1): 48–54.

History

In the Korean peninsula, lenoks were landlocked inland during the glacial epoch.

References

External links

A record Brachymystax lenok
{{Taxonbar, from=Q12607217 Fish of Asia * Taxa named by Albert Günther