Hobbies And Interests
Juvenile Diet
Juvenile rainbow smelt feed upon microscopic crustaceans, larvae, plankton and newly hatched aquatic worms in their freshwater nurseries. Vigorous feeders, their voracious appetite is apparent in newly hatched fry.
Saltwater Diet
Once juveniles grow large enough to return to their salt water home, they will feed on all types of crustaceans and ocean creatures like shrimp, crabs, sea worms, larger plankton, krill, invertebrates, squid and mysis. Mysis are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that live in both salt and fresh water. These tiny crustaceans are an important diet staple of rainbow smelt. Rainbow smelt also feast on many types of small fish like anchovy, herring, silversides, alewives, mummichogs, white fish and smaller rainbow smelt. Marine-dwelling smelt grow much more quickly than freshwater smelt.
Freshwater Diet
The rainbow smelt's freshwater diet consists of mysis, larger plankton, crustaceans and aquatic worms. It also eats considerable quantities of juvenile fish, larval fish and the fry of lake trout, walleye, yellow perch, bass, whitefish, cisco and lake herring. The fish's large mouth, lined with numerous teeth, makes it easy to consume large amounts of food quickly.
Feeding Preferences
During the cold winter months, mysis is the rainbow smelt's principal food. These important crustaceans are a nutritionally rich food that contain essential fatty acids needed by the rainbow smelt for added energy in the cold water. During the warmer spring and summer months the rainbow smelt's diet is a variety of fry, small fish, aquatic worms, crustaceans and mysis. Rainbow smelt congregate and feed together in large schools. Sensitive to the sun, they prefers to stay in about 20 feet of water until late in the day. At dusk large schools of smelt move into the shallow water to search for prey. Done by nightfall, the feeding frenzy will end abruptly with the return to their deeper hiding spots.