''Salvelinus elgyticus'' is a species of fish in the salmon family,

Salmonidae 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 ...

. It is a member of genus ''

Salvelinus ''Salvelinus'' is a genus of Salmonidae, salmonid fish often called char or charr; some species are called "trout". ''Salvelinus'' is a member of the subfamily Salmoninae within the family Salmonidae. The genus has a northern circumpolar distrib ...

'', the chars. It is known commonly as the small-mouth char (russian: малоротая палия). It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Lake El'gygytgyn in eastern

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 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

.Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Editors
''Salvelinus elgyticus''.
FishBase. 2015.

Description

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

Biology

This cold water fish is named after its native lake, which is located in Chukotka,

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. This species and its relative, the long-finned char (''Salvethymus svetovidovi'') are limited to this remote lake, which is an

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...

. They are adapted to its very cold waters, which are generally just above the freezing point. The surface is frozen for about 10 months of the year. It may start to melt in the summer, but some years it never fully thaws. This fish spends most of the year in total darkness. ''Salvelinus elgyticus'' is considered a

threatened species Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

by some authors,Chereshnev, I. A. (1998)
Threatened fishes of the world: ''Salvelinus elgyticus'' Viktorovskii & Glubokovskii, 1981 (Salmonidae).
''Environmental biology of fishes'', 51(1) 24. but it has not yet been evaluated by

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

References

External links

''Salvelinus elgyticus'' illustration.
The Red Book of the Russian Federation. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2817297 elgyticus Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Endemic fauna of Russia Fauna of Siberia Cold water fish Fish described in 1981