Burbot
Lota lota
Also known asEelpout · Ling · Lawyer
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 1500 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 45% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 0.80% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 0.50% of body weight
- Max density
- 30 g per litre
A 3000 g adult eats about 24.0 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~240 g daily.
Legality
Rules vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Verify with your local fisheries or wildlife authority before stocking.
| Jurisdiction | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| California | permit required | verified 2026-05-13 |
| Minnesota | permit required | verified 2026-05-13 |
Unlisted jurisdictions default to "check local regulations".
Origin and habitat
Lota lota is the only freshwater member of the cod family, a relative of the marine cods, hakes, and pollocks. It is circumpolar, living in cold rivers and lakes across the northern hemisphere above about 40 degrees north, through North America (the Great Lakes, upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Columbia drainages, Alaska, and Canada), Europe, and northern Asia. It looks like nothing else in fresh water: a long, mottled brown-and-yellow body shaped like a marine cod, with a single fleshy barbel on the chin that it uses to find prey on dark bottoms. Burbot hold in deep, cold water and turn most active in winter, gathering to spawn under the ice in midwinter, roughly January to March, at temperatures barely above freezing. The flesh is white, firm, and clean-tasting, close enough to marine cod that the fish is sometimes called freshwater cod, and the tail meat has earned the nickname 'poor man's lobster'. Burbot reach about a metre and can live past twenty years. They remain an underexploited species, with interest growing among researchers and niche producers.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- cold-water (cool water required, dies in heat)
- USDA zones
- 1–5 (winter low around -51°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- no
- Cooling needed
- yes, if summer water exceeds upper tolerance
Care notes
A specialty cold-water fish for growers with access to very cold water. Burbot grow best colder than most salmonids like it: spawning and egg incubation need temperatures below about 5 C, hatched larvae do best near 10 C, and grow-out is best around 15 C, and the fish keep feeding under ice at 1 to 4 C when trout are nearly dormant, which suits winter production in the far north. Growth is moderate, on the order of 300–500 g in eighteen to twenty-four months on a high-protein feed of 45 to 50 percent, though it varies a lot with temperature and strain; feed conversion in trial culture is roughly 1.3 to 1.8. The big hurdle is the early life stage: larvae need live food, rotifers and then Artemia, for the first month or more before weaning to dry feed, and that, plus thin commercial fingerling supply, is the main bottleneck for the species. Burbot are nocturnal bottom-dwellers that want dim light, cover, and a smooth or bare tank floor; stocking around 10 to 20 g/L appears workable, though commercial data are still scarce. Hatchery work has centered on the University of Idaho's Aquaculture Research Institute, tied to Kootenai River recovery. Where fish are available, the cod-like flesh and 'poor man's lobster' tail meat fetch strong prices at specialty restaurants and markets.