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 that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, wider

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

(including

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

), Northern China and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

.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 ''Brachymystax lenok'', the sharp-snouted lenok,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.'' Jou ...

'' (

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 Augustinian friar wor ...

, 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 exactly 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 all ...

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 In snakes, the ventral scales or gastrosteges are the enlarged and transversely elongated scales that extend down the underside of the body from the neck to the anal scale. When counting them, the first is the anteriormost ventral scale that cont ...

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 Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Rep ...

. 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 The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'erj ...

) and northeastern China (

Amur Basin The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...

). 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 the R ...

and

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

basins in the

Qinling Mountains The Qinling () or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Yellow ...

of China. Though overall widespread, lenoks in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

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

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