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[liketofish]

First off, I have been stuck at home every weekend because of the ice or the flood. So will head off soon for my first trip. May as well kick off my season with a silly question and you can make fun of it or add your hilarious guess for the answer. That is something often intrigue me as to how they do it.

My question is why fish can always find their own mate and not cross with any other fish out there? I mean, the way their eyes are placed and the fact they cannot turn their head or bend to see the rest of their body (and they have no mirror  ), there is no way they know how they look. What do you think is the secret of them always able to mate with their own kind? Like in nature a coho won't breed with a chum or pink, and a Fraser spring won't cross with a sockeye even though they run at the same time. Not to say a salmon will cross with a trout or dolly. So imagine you cannot see yourself how you look like, will you somehow find a gorilla as your mate?  Any intelligent or hilarious guess?

[purple monster]

It must be body language. It's all in the moves.

[dave c]

Just a guess but possibly because of their genetic code maybe they do sometime interbreed but for example a springs milt might not fertilize a sockeyes eggs.

[banx]

I saw on a fishing show. I think mark krupas series.  But there is interbreeding between pacific salmon species in the great lakes. 

as for out here. without using google i'm going to venture that they use smell. that maybe each species has a particular odour and they hone in on that....

i'm sure there is someone here who can give you the correct answer.

[Magz]

I was going to say smell also!!!

[Ian Forbes]

I enjoy breeding with another gene pool, but I'm not sure if the spawning was a success. 

Cross breeding between different salmonid species in an artificial setting has been successful. Splake are a cross between Lake trout (char) and eastern Brook trout (char), and are sterile, as are most of the other exotic cross breeds such as Tiger trout. Tiger trout are a cross between Brown trout (trout)and eastern Brook trout (char). It is possible for Dolly Varden and Bull trout to cross breed and produce fertile offspring. Both are from the char family. The same is true with cutthroat trout and rainbow trout, but in that case it has usually been when hatchery stock is introduced into the other species habitat. They don't normally cross breed on their own when both species are native to the watershed.

It is an interesting topic and I have seen some strange anomalies over the years. On the Cowichan River one day I saw a winter steelhead buddy up with a Brown trout. I even have photos to prove it. On the Marble River I saw a sockeye salmon and a summer-run steelhead obviously traveling together as a pair, despite the fact that there were others of their own species in the river at the same time. I doubt if they actually tried spawning with each other because of their different spawning season.

[jimmywits]

I was going to say smell also!!!

x3