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

Osmerus mordax (Rainbow smelt)

Wikipedia Abstract

The rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax, is an anadromous species of fish of the family Osmeridae. The distribution of Osmerus mordax is circumpolar. The rainbow smelt was 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 and other small organisms such as zooplankton. They are spring spawners and prefer clean streams with light flow and light siltation.
View Wikipedia Record: Osmerus mordax

Infraspecies

Osmerus mordax dentex (Arctic smelt)
Osmerus mordax mordax (Rainbow smelt) (Attributes)

Attributes

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

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Map Climate Land Use
Acadia National Park II 35996 Maine, United States
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Ib 12402936 Alaska, United States
Cape Breton Highlands National Park II 234333 Nova Scotia, Canada  
Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve 9859505 New York, Vermont, United States  
Fathom Five National Marine Park II   Ontario, Canada
Forillon National Park II 61010 Quebec, Canada  
Gros Morne National Park II 476632 Newfoundland, Canada
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore II 8272 Indiana, United States
Ivvavik National Park II 2382752 Yukon, Canada
Kouchibouguac National Park II 59161 New Brunswick, Canada
La Mauricie National Park II 131706 Quebec, Canada
Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve 293047 British Columbia, Canada  
Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve 470167 Ontario, Canada  
North Temperate Lakes LTER Site Long Term Ecological Research   Wisconsin, United States
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve II 137900 British Columbia, Canada
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore II 67888 Michigan, United States
Prince Edward Island National Park II   Prince Edward Island, Canada  
Pukaskwa National Park II 459860 Ontario, Canada
Saguenay - St. Lawrence Marine Park National Marine Conservation Area II 310822 Canada
Saint Croix International Historic Site   Maine, United States
Saint Lawrence Islands National Park II   Ontario, Canada
Sikhote-Alinskiy Biosphere Reserve 978001 Russia  
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore II 62563 Michigan, United States
Terra Nova National Park IV 125894 Newfoundland, Canada
Tuktut Nogait National Park II 5761538 Northwest Territories, Canada
Voyageurs National Park II 177960 Minnesota, United States
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Ib 2476446 Alaska, United States

Ecosystems

Prey / Diet

Amnicola limosus (mud amnicola)[3]
Bythotrephes longimanus (spiny waterflea)[3]
Cyclops bicuspidatus (cyclopoid copepod)[3]
Daphnia galeata (waterflea)[3]
Diaptomus sicilis (calanoid copepod)[3]
Diporeia hoyi (amphipod)[3]
Leptodora kindtii (raptorial waterflea)[3]
Mysis relicta (opossum shrimp)[3]
Sergentia coracina (chironomid)[3]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Alosa pseudoharengus (kyack)9
Coregonus clupeaformis (Common whitefish)6
Coregonus hoyi (Bloater)9
Cottus cognatus (Anadyr sculpin)9
Gasterosteus aculeatus (Alaskan stickleback)1
Lota lota (Thin-tailed burbot)1
Oncorhynchus mykiss (redband trout)5
Perca flavescens (Yellow perch)9
Salvelinus alpinus (Arctic charr)1
Sander vitreus (Walleye)5

Predators

Illex illecebrosus (northern shortfin squid)[4]
Lagenorhynchus acutus (Atlantic White-sided Dolphin)[5]
Lota lota (Thin-tailed burbot)[3]
Micropterus dolomieu (Smallmouth bass)[3]
Oncorhynchus kisutch (coho salmon or silver salmon)[3]
Oncorhynchus mykiss (redband trout)[3]
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (chinook salmon or king salmon)[3]
Phocoena phocoena (Harbor Porpoise)[6]
Salmo trutta (Brown trout)[3]
Salvelinus namaycush (American lake char)[3]
Sander vitreus (Walleye)[3]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Acanthocephalus dirus[7]
Anisakis simplex[7]
Ascarophis arctica <Unverified Name>[7]
Brachyphallus crenatus[7]
Contracaecum osculatum[7]
Corynosoma strumosum[7]
Corynosoma wegeneri[7]
Cryptocotyle lingua[7]
Cyathocephalus truncatus <Unverified Name>[7]
Cystidicola farionis <Unverified Name>[7]
Derogenes varicus[7]
Diphyllobothrium dendriticum[7]
Diphyllobothrium hottai <Unverified Name>[7]
Diphyllobothrium plerocercoid <Unverified Name>[7]
Diphyllobothrium sebago <Unverified Name>[7]
Diplostomum flexicaudum[7]
Diplostomum huronense[7]
Diplostomum spathaceum[7]
Echinorhynchus gadi[7]
Echinorhynchus lateralis[7]
Echinorhynchus salmonis[7]
Grillotia erinaceus[7]
Ichthyocotylurus erraticus[7]
Lecithaster gibbosus[7]
Leptorhynchoides thecatus[7]
Neoechinorhynchus pungitius[7]
Neoechinorhynchus rutili[7]
Neoechinorhynchus tumidus[7]
Pomphorhynchus bulbocolli[7]
Proteocephalus spasskii <Unverified Name>[7]
Proteocephalus tetrastomus[7]
Pseudoterranova decipiens[7]
Scolex pleuronectis <Unverified Name>[7]
Spinitectus gracilis <Unverified Name>[7]
Tetracotyle intermedia <Unverified Name>[7]

Range Map

Link to Map

External References

Photos

Citations

Species recognized by , , FishBase in Catalog of Life 2011
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 ♦ 3NOAA, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory ♦ 4CephBase - Cephalopod (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) Database ♦ 5Food 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) ♦ 6THE 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 ♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Protected Areas provided by Biological Inventories of the World's Protected Areas in cooperation between the Information Center for the Environment at the University of California, Davis and numerous collaborators.
Images provided by Google Image Search
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Range map provided by NatureServe. 2010. Digital Distribution Maps of the Freshwater Fishes in the Conterminous United States. Version 3.0. Arlington, VA. U.S.A.
Weather provided by NOAA METAR Data Access