Salvelinus elgyticus is a species of fish in the salmon family, Salmonidae. It is a member of genus Salvelinus, the chars. It is known commonly as the small-mouth char (). It is endemic to Lake Elgygytgyn in eastern Siberia in Russia.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.Salvelinus elgyticus. Catalogue of Life 2007 Checklist. This species and its relative, the long-finned char (Salvethymus svetovidovi) are limited to this remote lake, which is an impact crater. 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.The Elgygytgyn Lake, Chukotka. Fly Fishing Russia.
Salvelinus elgyticus is considered a threatened species 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.
References
External links Salvelinus elgyticus illustration. The Red Book of the Russian Federation.