Landlocked Salmon Diet

With its high levels of heart-healthy, omega-3 fatty acids, salmon is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. MayoClinic.com recommends eating two servings a week. However, a salmon's diet can affect your own diet.

Farm-raised salmon should be eaten only once a month because of high levels of PCB chemicals. Fresh water, landlocked salmon can contain high levels of mercury and, like all freshwater fish, should be eaten only once a month for pregnant women and children under 8 and once a week for others, according to the Department of Human Services, Environmental Toxicology Program.

Landlocked Salmon

While there are six species of Pacific salmon, there is only one species of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. Landlocked salmon are a variety of Atlantic salmon, according to the Atlantic Salmon Trust. These salmon, called Sebago salmon or Ouananich in Nova Scotia and parts of New England, are found in cold-water lakes in the northern United States, in Lake Vanern in Sweden, Lake Ladoga in Russia and in South Island, New Zeeland.

Farm Raised Landlocked Salmon

Some landlocked salmon begin life in farmed salmon pens. When the fish are approximately 1 1/2 years old, they may be deemed surplus by the hatchery and are then sometimes donated, free of charge, to state or local entities. These entities, such as the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, transport the yearlings into freshwater lakes for sport anglers to catch.

Early Natural Diet

When salmon hatch, they remain hidden in the gravel of the river for four to six weeks and are nourished by the yolk sacs that remain attached to them. The small fish, called fry, then feed on microscopic plants or animals until they are 1 year old. At this point, the salmon begin to feed on small aquatic insects and larvae.

Farmed Salmon Diet

While still on the fish farm for their first 1 1/2 years, salmon eat fishmeal and fish oil. Farmed Salmon Exposed reports that 1 lb. of fishmeal contains more than 3 lb. of wild fish, such as anchovies, herring, sardines and mackerel. A variety of chemical pesticides, antibiotics and other additives are added to the diet and contaminate the water and the salmon themselves according to Farmed Salmon Exposed.

Adult Natural Diet

In lakes and oceans, salmon feed on small fish species. In Maine lakes, rainbow smelts provide the bulk of their diet, while in New Jersey lakes, alewives, a sea fish that like the salmon can live in both seawater and freshwater, make up the bulk of the salmon's diet. Adult salmon also feed on insects they find on the surface of the lake.

Landlocked Salmon Diet