Animalia > Chordata > Osmeriformes > Osmeridae > Osmerus > Osmerus mordax

Osmerus mordax (Rainbow smelt)

Synonyms: Atherina mordax; Osmerus eperlanus mordax; Osmerus mordax mordax; Osmerus sergeanti; Osmerus viridescens

Wikipedia Abstract

The rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) is a species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Its distribution is circumpolar, and it has been introduced to the Great Lakes, and from there has made its way to various other places. Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods (Leptodiaptomus ashlandi, L. minutus, L. sicilis), and other small organisms, but are aggressive and will eat almost any fish they find. They are anadromous spring spawners and prefer clean streams with light flow and light siltation. The rainbow smelt face several barriers. They are weak swimmers and cannot overcome most fish ladders. This prevents them from making it past the dams to the headwater streams where they spawn. The rise in e
View Wikipedia Record: Osmerus mordax

Attributes

Adult Length [1]  14 inches (36 cm)
Brood Dispersal [1]  In the open
Brood Egg Substrate [1]  Litho-pelagophils
Brood Guarder [1]  No
Litter Size [1]  75,000
Maximum Longevity [1]  7 years
Migration [2]  Anadromous
Diet [2]  Carnivore
Female Maturity [1]  2 years 6 months

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Frimpong, E.A., and P. L. Angermeier. 2009. FishTraits: a database of ecological and life-history traits of freshwater fishes of the United States. Fisheries 34:487-495.
♦ 2Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 3Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 4NOAA, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
♦ 5CephBase - Cephalopod (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) Database
♦ 6Food habits of Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus acutus) off the coast of New England, James E. Craddock, Pamela T. Polloni, Brett Hayward, Frederick Wenzel, Fish. Bull. 107:384–394 (2009)
♦ 7THE DIET OF HARBOUR PORPOISE (PHOCOENA PHOCOENA) IN THE NORTHEAST ATLANTIC, M. B. SANTOS & G. J. PIERCE, Oceanography and Marine Biology: an Annual Review 2003, 41, 355–390
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0