After 1 or possibly 2 years as parasites, they return to the streams to spawn and die. Ammocoetes feed on drifting plankton and detritus. Adults attack a variety of fish including trout, whitefish, smelt, pike, white sucker, black buffalo, brown bullhead, carp, rock bass, walleye, paddlefish and even such armored species as sturgeons and gars. Distribution of silver lamprey in NY state. Dark dots represent where actual samples of silver lamprey were taken.
White dots represent historic distributions.
A 120 KB image of the silver lamprey is also available for download.