How to Raise Rainbow Smelts

Rainbow smelts are slender fish between 6 inches and 8 inches in length. Although an anadromous species, which leaves the ocean to breed in freshwater streams, a number of landlocked or freshwater smelt populations exist in North American lakes, such as Lake Erie and Ontario. Rainbow smelt breed in spring and lay in excess of 10,000 sticky eggs at night, which adhere to the substrate.

Things You'll Need

  • 100-gallon aquarium
  • Aquarium gravel
  • Water
  • 10 tsp. chlorine remover
  • Aquarium chiller
  • Power head with adhesive suction cups
  • Sponge filter
  • Vibrator pump
  • Adult male and female rainbow smelt
  • Earthworms
  • Daphnia
  • Holding tanks
  • 1/4-acre natural pond
  • Automatic feeder
  • Floating pellets
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place a 2-inch layer of gravel onto the bottom of a 100-gallon aquarium.

    • 2

      Fill the aquarium with water and add 10 tsp. of chlorine remover.

    • 3

      Connect an aquarium chiller to the tank and set it to 27 degrees Fahrenheit.

    • 4

      Position a power head on one side of the aquarium. Place the power head into its bracket and use the adhesive suction cups to secure the unit to the inside glass pane of glass. Rainbow smelt typically lay eggs in areas of the stream where there is a gentle current that the power head will produce.

    • 5

      Place a sponge filter into the aquarium and connect it to a small vibrator pump.

    • 6

      Obtain mature rainbow smelt of at least two years of age.

    • 7

      Identify the male fish, by the rough breeding tubercles that appear on their body during the spawning season.

    • 8

      Feed live food, such as earthworms, to the smelt for three or four weeks prior to the beginning of spring. This live food conditions the fish in preparation for spawning.

    • 9

      Place a male and female rainbow smelt into the spawning aquarium at the beginning of spring.

    • 10

      Observe the male fish paying attention to and following the female. Look out for egg laying, at which stage the male fish releases his milt or sperm over the eggs as they are laid. The eggs are sticky and will adhere to the gravel.

    • 11

      Remove the parent fish after egg laying and return them to your holding tanks. Wait for up to 29 days for the eggs to hatch.

    • 12

      Add daphnia, which are available from an aquatic dealer, to the tank, three times daily. Add sufficient amounts of these live water fleas, so the fry can feed continually between the three feeding sessions.

    • 13

      Remove the young smelt at 75 days of age and place them in 1/4 acre ponds, where these fish will graze on the natural wild food sources.

    • 14

      Introduce an automatic feeding system, offering a pellet diet, approximately two months after the fish were introduced to the ponds.