Once free they begin feeding on microscopic animals. Although fry do not appear to school, fingerlings do. Schools are often found with large numbers of individuals in the middle of lakes. Typically, white crappie grow three to five inches in length the first year, and reach seven to eight inches during the second year. Maturity is usually reached in two to three years.
Adults feed on small fish and insects.
The native range of white crappie included the area west of the Appalachian Mountains north to southern Ontario and south to the Gulf of Mexico. The range extended west to Minnesota and South Dakota in the north, and northeastern Mexico in the south. Today the range extends east to the Atlantic coast, and west to include California and portions of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and North Dakota. In Texas white crappie are native to the eastern two-thirds of the state, but the species may now be found statewide except for the upper portions of the Rio Grande and Pecos drainages. The crappie group is the third most preferred group overall, ranking behind only bass and catfish .