Salmo Obtusirostris.

Neretva soft mouth 5

Neretva soft mouth 4

Buna soft mouth 1

Species description.

Salmo Obtusirostris or softmouth trout is a species that looks like a cross between a brown trout and a grayling and their brown body has black or red dots and a mouth like a grayling. This species can reach a length of around 75 cm and a weight of 6kg. Its a freshwater species living in some of the Adriatic rivers.

Behaviour.

Softmouth trout are spring spawners and spawn somewhere in April or may. They feed on larvae and aquatic insects and behave like grayling, preferring deeper slower water and wider rivers. Where they inhabit the deep slow pool and feed near the bottom.   

History.

The Softmouth has had multiple different scientific names throughout the years and synonyms that can be found are Thymallus microlepis, Salmothymus obtusirostris and Salar obtusirostri. The species has been placed in different genus due to its looks that are a lot different than other species in the Salmo genus but it is still placed there right now.

Threats.

One of the mayor threats for this species is the fragmentation and destruction of habitat due to the building of dams. Also competition from introduced species and overfishing are threats for these fish.

Distribution.

Softmouth trout are only native to rivers where grayling are not natively found. the four river systems that are its native range are the Neretva, Morača, Jadro and Krka although the Krka population might be extinct. These basins are found in Bosnia and Herzegovina ,Croatia and Montenegro. The Moraca basin also branches into Albania but this branch does not contain Softmouth trout.