# Tiger trout question...



## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Are the brightly colored fish the males or the females? I have heard it both ways and wonder what is really is.


----------



## FROGGER (Oct 1, 2007)

I am not sure on the color i get this confused as well.. Also is it that the Female must be a brown and the Male a Brooke to make tigers or Visa Versa.. I know its one of the two....


----------



## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

This time of year, the shinier tigers (more silverish) are the females and the brassy or golden colored ones (usually with a hook jaw) are males.

I wish I knew the answer to Frogger's question, myself. In my own research, I've read both. That can't be true, can it?

My best guess would be female brook trout and male browns. I say that because the only "natural" tiger I ever saw was right under the dam at Strawberry. At that time, there were mostly brookies hanging out in that spot and the browns were typically further downstream.

Just the other day, all I could get to hit were browns though. I'm stumped.


----------



## Greenguy88 (Sep 7, 2007)

Orvis looks like I turned you around, I thought it was the females that turn golden, but heck, what do I know? Thats also a good question how they are bred, maybe Ill do some research...


----------



## FROGGER (Oct 1, 2007)

I have read up on this and from what i gather the Females must be browns and the males must be brooks... I am not stating this as an expert, just reiterating what i have read....


----------



## Greenguy88 (Sep 7, 2007)

> About tiger trout
> It's a cross between a female brown trout and a male brook trout, and this breeding gives it distinct tiger-like markings. It is known to be more aggressive than its parents. Raised successfully in hatcheries, but has a high mortality rate if bred in the wild.





> The tiger trout is a hybrid fish produced by the breeding of a male brown trout with a female brook trout (Utah Fish Finder, n.d.). Managers of Utah's fisheries have high hopes that the Tiger Trout will keep the chub from out-competing and overrunning other gaming fish in Utah's waters especially in Scofield Reservoir and Joe's Valley


those are just a few quotes I found off the internet, as you can see, they are conflicting. Is there anybody who knows for sure how they are bred?


----------



## FROGGER (Oct 1, 2007)

Perhaps it does not matter, I would assume that it does but this seems to be the same information i run into... Hmmmmm


----------



## Christopher30 (Nov 9, 2007)

In both species of those trout, the male is the brightly colored depending on time of year of course. I don't see why it would be any different in a hybrid of the two, so my guess based upon this knowledge would be that the males exhibit the color. In the spring it's really hard to tell the difference on brook trout though, and in really deep lakes the color doesn't show up at all sometimes.


----------



## Nibble Nuts (Sep 12, 2007)

I always thought it had to be a female of the larger species bred to a male of the smaller species or there could be problems, but I am not sure how it works with fish. 
In most animals, fish, etc. the male will usually sport the bright colorations and unique physical characteristics. Also in fish, usually the females grow much larger than the males. I know male bass rarely make it over 16".


----------



## chuckmiester (Sep 9, 2007)

LOAH said:


> My best guess would be female brook trout and male browns. I say that because the only "natural" tiger I ever saw was right under the dam at Strawberry. At that time, there were mostly brookies hanging out in that spot and the browns were typically further downstream.
> 
> Just the other day, all I could get to hit were browns though. I'm stumped.


i knew a spot where there WERE a few natural tigers (they were never stocked anywhere near this place) but soon the browns overran the brooks so now they are gone. browns do this a lot in heavily fished and/or warmer waters, partly because they can live in the mucked up water better and brooks are more susceptible to being caught then browns due to their night feeding habits.


----------



## handsomefish (Nov 14, 2007)

I've been hitting the tigers hard the last , couple of months, and in the last month I've caught both male and female that have been brightly colored which has more to do with the time of year than the sex Even though they don't spawn they get spawning colors (Brighter) However you want to discribe it. Although I have seen pictures of males with some red on there bellys witch would only be males 
All the smaller fish That I've caught have been light colored, both male and female and at this stage I can't tell the difference But with the fast growth rate by there second year they develope noticable male female traits
As far as which way they mix the speices ether way there still tiger trout, Are they not?
I'ts like the splake they plant in causey they mix them both ways and list them all as splake
I think (only my opinion) certain traits depend on how they where mixed, I caught fish with huge humped backs (like the brooks in cabelas) and some that I thought were browns at first
Just some of my observations and opinions, Looking forward to reading others


----------



## RnF (Sep 25, 2007)

Well, the way I understand it. The way to tell a male trout from a female trout is by looking at the corner of the mouth. If it extends past the eye, it's male. If it stops at the eye or before it, its a female. I would imagine that tiger trout are the same.

I could be wrong on this, it's just what someone told me. Seems to be consistently true though.

As far as how to make a tiger, female brown and male brook or the oppisite, is beyond me. I didn't know that mattered.

Color and shape greatly depends on if a trout is spawning, their environment, diet and genes. Below are some examples, the pictures are not mine, just borrowed them for examples.

Male Tiger - corner of the mouth extends past the eye









Female Tiger - corner of the mouth stops near the eye









Brook Trout examples

Male - corner of the mouth extends past the eye









Female - corner of the mouth stops near the eye


----------



## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

That Tiger has some nice colors to it!


----------



## J-bass (Oct 22, 2007)

Hey RnF, that was a pretty interesting post about jaw length while the mouth is closed can determine sex. As a predominate bass fisherman, we use the same method to determine weather some fish are largemouth or smallmouth. As you would expect, the mouth of the largemouth extends past the eye, and the mouth of the smallmouth stops at or before the eye. I'm totally going to have to adopt the same practice for the rare occasions that I run into trout. Thanks again, that was a great post.


----------



## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for the insight and the knowledge everyone!


----------



## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Utah says it's a male brown and a female brookies and Pa. says it's the other way around.


----------



## chuckmiester (Sep 9, 2007)

Packfish said:


> Utah says it's a male brown and a female brookies and Pa. says it's the other way around.


not saying either is wrong, but both might work or it might have something to do with the strain of brooks, and water conditions.


----------



## The Naturalist (Oct 13, 2007)

The Tigers (at least in Utah) are the cross between female brookies and male browns. Since they are of different species the resulting offspring are neither male nor female and are infertile and incapable of reproducing. However, they can go through a false spawn where most Tigers take on female characteristics and a few will take on typical male characteristics of the brighter colors, hooked jaw etc.
They are fun to catch! I need to get into more of them.


----------



## RnF (Sep 25, 2007)

The Naturalist said:


> The Tigers (at least in Utah) are the cross between female brookies and male browns. *Since they are of different species the resulting offspring are neither male nor female and are infertile and incapable of reproducing.* However, they can go through a false spawn where most Tigers take on female characteristics and a few will take on typical male characteristics of the brighter colors, hooked jaw etc.
> They are fun to catch! I need to get into more of them.


What you said doesn't really make any sense.

Being sterile does not mean a fish isn't a male or female, it just means they can't reproduce. Mules are sterile from cross breading, but there are still male Mules and female Mules. Mules can go through the motions all they want and they can, but they cannot reproduce because their chromosomes are all messed up which makes them sterile. I would be shocked if it wasn't the same for tiger trout.

Did a quick search on Wiki (yeah I know it isn't always reliable), here is what it says.

"Artificially, tiger trout can be produced reliably enough to be grown by hatcheries. This is done by fertilizing brown trout eggs with brook trout milt, and heat shocking them, which causes creation of an extra set of chromosomes and increases survival from 5% to 85%.[3] Tiger trout have been reported to grow faster than natural species,[4] though this assessment is not universal,[5] and they have been widely stocked for sport fishing."

This tells me that it is mixed with a female brown with a male brook, interesting how a 'heat shocking' would create an extra set of chromosomes.


----------



## The Naturalist (Oct 13, 2007)

RNF - no disagreement with you - like I said most take on female characteristics, some male. What I mean by neither male nor female is the lack of ovaries and testes, or, if present, as in the case of the mules, no "mojo".


----------



## FC2Tuber (Oct 26, 2007)

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gf ... le;#373151

Check out the above link. TubeDude says basically the same thing regarding gender with tiger trout.


----------

