The advantages of stocking triploid trout are that they cannot breed with New Mexico’s native species of trout, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout and the Gila trout. The resulting fish are basically all sterile females. To create triploid trout, the rainbow trout eggs are exposed to irradiation or to high temperatures that adds an extra gene to their DNA during development. Triploid rainbow trout are sterile and cannot reproduce. The response of anglers to being able to catch these larger-than-average trout was so positive that the Department decided to include a percentage of larger trout in its regular stockings from then on.įor a number of years, the Department has stocked only triploid rainbow trout. So these fish would not be wasted, they were then stocked into public waters after being tested. Once back in operation the Hatchery had to raise a number of rainbow trout to maturity or over two years of age to confirm that the fish were free of the disease. The Hatchery was shut down and thoroughly cleansed of disease. Whirling Disease is a parasitic infection that destroys the skeletal cartilage of young trout, often causing them to swim in circles, hence its name. This had initially started because the Department had to close the Los Ojos Fish Hatchery due to the presence of Whirling Disease. Included in the stocking were 993 trout that averaged between 15.2 and 17.8 inches in size that weighed a total of 1,910 pounds.įor the past 10 seasons the Department has included the stocking of larger-than-average rainbow trout in its regular stocking routine. The State Game and Fish Department stocked a total of 18,579 triploid rainbow trout last week that weighed a total of 6,647 pounds.
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