White-spotted char
Amazing fact
The white-spotted char has a small, fan-shaped adipose fin behind its dorsal fin.
水産研究・教育機構国立環境研究所 侵入生物データベース
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The white-spotted char has a small, fan-shaped adipose fin behind its dorsal fin.
THE REAL WORLD
The real White-spotted char
- Scientific name
- Salvelinus leucomaenis
- Japanese name
- イワナ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Salmoniformes
- Family
- Salmonidae
- Genus
- Salvelinus
This page covers the species as a whole; the amemasu, Yamato iwana, Nikko iwana and gogi are regarded as its subspecies.
A fish of clear mountain streams in the upper reaches of rivers, where the water stays cold even in summer. It prefers rocky places.
Its body is spotted, and the colors of the spots, such as white, yellow, orange or vermilion, differ between subspecies.
It eats aquatic insects, insects that fall onto the water and small fish, and sometimes even swallows snakes.
How the White-spotted char lives
Its spawning season roughly coincides with the peak of autumn leaf color. At spawning time, they gather in narrow tributary streams in valleys. They make spawning beds in sand and gravel where the current is a little slower.
国立環境研究所 侵入生物データベースBasic data
- Size
- Total length: 25–60 cm
- Diet
- Aquatic insects, fallen terrestrial insects, small fish and others
- Range
- Eastern Russia, northeastern Korean Peninsula, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands and Japan
Where the White-spotted char has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 新潟県 — 新潟県に生息している淡水魚たちChecked: 2026-11-03
- 国立環境研究所 侵入生物データベース — イワナChecked: 2026-11-03
- 水産研究・教育機構 — 日本のサケ科魚類Checked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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