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Wild Halibut Diet: First Year
During their first year, a wild halibut feeds on plankton. Plankton are microorganisms that live in aquatic environments and travel by floating on the water currents. Plankton are usually single-celled and may be either plant life, such as algae, or animal life, such as zooplankton and fish larvae.
Wild Halibut Diet: Youth (1 to 3 Years Old)
Euphausiids and other very small sea life and fishes make up the bulk of the adolescent halibut's diet. Though larger than the microorganisms that very immature halibut feed on, euphausiids are small animals, similar in appearance to shrimp. As the halibut grows larger, the size of the animal species it prays on grows, too. Females grow faster than males and tend to ultimately grow much larger than males, so they're likely to move from euphausiids to a diet of larger animals earlier in life than males do.
Wild Halibut Diet: Adult
A halibut is predatory in its eating habits; generally, it will eat anything its mouth is big enough to fit around, including smaller halibut. Cod, rockfish, pollock and stablefish are common prey for any halibut of mature size. A larger halibut may also be able to eat shellfish, such as clams and crabs, and larger marine life, such as herring and octopus.
Farmed Halibut Diet
In both wild environments and in fish farms, halibut larvae --- from hatching to 50 days old --- feed from their yolk sac. In a fish farm hatchery, plankton and pellet feed made for immature halibut are added to the larval halibut's diet as the yolk sac becomes depleted. The adolescent halibut are then transferred to the hatchery's circular tank until they are roughly 5 g in weight, after which they're transferred to the sea cages that house the adult halibut. As both adolescents and adults, halibut are fed pellets instead of fresh sea life. Their pellets contain fishmeal, fish oils, vitamins and minerals. Growing halibut must be fed roughly 1 to 1.5 kg of pellet feed in order to gain 1 kg of body weight.