As you might expect, ichthyologists have come up with a
nomenclature all their own to describe the life cycle of trout. For example, the saucer-shaped bed the
100 – 500 eggs are laid, fertilized, and then buried for the winter is
called a ‘redd’. Some 50 to
100 days later, the eggs hatch into tadpole-like larvae with large yolk
bellies, known as ‘alevins’.
When the yolk sac is absorbed, the young trout swim up from the
redd, emerging in the water as ‘fry’ After several weeks, a series
of dark vertical bands appear along the sides of the young trout and they
are now referred to as ‘parr’.
At this point, the fish guys apparently ran out of imagination,
resorting to calling the juvenile and adult stages, well, juveniles and
adults. Brook trout in Virginia
reach sexual maturity at two years of age and an average length of 6.5
inches. The life span of this species is generally less than four years in
this region, with most fish reaching about 9 to 12 inches by this time.