The ability to control hatchery water temperatures and a sufficient supplies of forage fish has limited muskellunge production. Growth rate is reduced but food conversion tends to improve, when muskellunge are reared in tanks. The expense and availability of adequate forage fish will probably limit muskellunge production to the sport fishery. This species has a circumpolar distribution in the northern hemisphere. Northern pike have been widely introduced throughout North America as a sport fish and to control forage fish.
Northern pike live in a wide variety of habitats.
Pike are used as a predator species in Canada farm ponds, often to control bluegill populations. Spawning occurs in spring when water temperatures reach 40 to 52 degrees F. Northern pike spawn during daylight hours over densely vegetated river floodplains, marshes, and the bays of large lakes. One or more males fertilize the eggs of the larger female. The eggs are scattered over flooded terrestrial or aquatic vegetation. Individual females may produce an estimated 32,000 adhesive eggs.