Fish are a superclass of aquatic vertebrates. They are characterized by gill breathing. They are distributed in both fresh and s alt waters; both in mountain streams and in deep ocean trenches. These creatures play a critical role in many aquatic ecosystems and are of great economic importance to humans. This is their brief description. As you may have guessed, this article will focus on fish, in particular the predatory inhabitants of the underwater kingdom. We will tell you about the most famous and striking predators: you will find out what they eat and what fish eats what.
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As a rule, on a fine sunny day, the water surface reminds us of a large mirror. One has only to look into this "mirror", as clouds floating through the heavens, as well as trees leaning over a reservoir, will be immediately visible in it. At this moment it may seem that the reservoir is empty and dead, but it is not at all! ActuallyIn fact, life is in full swing under this mirror surface! Sometimes there even flare up serious passions. One of the main characters in this underwater "play" are fish. You won’t immediately understand which fish eats which, but it happens there with enviable regularity!
Who are fish?
We have presented a brief scientific description of these animals above. In simple terms, fish are usually called all vertebrates that inhabit fresh and s alt water sources. Almost all fish have paired limbs, represented by fins, and their respiratory organs are gills. From the point of view of zoological classification, fish is a common name that unites 6 independent classes (groups) that differ from each other in one way or another, one of which indicates that the fish belongs to predatory or peaceful individuals. In this article, we are more interested in predators. Let's find out which fish eat which.
Common perch
This is a typical inhabitant of fresh water in our country. Common perch belongs to the most numerous class of highly organized fish - ray-finned. Its body is laterally compressed, has an oval shape and consists of three sections: head, torso, tail. Perch, like all other fish, breathes with gills, so oxygen is vital to it. And he has it, but not quite the same as ours: fish extract oxygen not from the air, but from the water. To do this, the fish is forced to swallow air through its mouth, driving it through the gill cavity, located under the gill covers.
What does the common perch eat?
Common perch is a predatory lake fish. It is found in rivers, lakes, ponds, reservoirs in Europe and North Asia. The perch was brought to Africa, New Zealand, Australia. The diet of these fish is made up of other freshwater fish. Initially, perch fry feed on zooplankton, and as soon as they mature, they begin to hunt young perches and cyprinids. These fish begin to feed on fry of other relatives, as a rule, in the second year of their life. With age, the common perch turns to hunting for larger and more mobile fish.
How do bass hunt?
Adults are agile and fairly strong predators. They swim very fast, sometimes coming to a complete stop, but then instantly rushing forward. These fish have a huge mouth located at the front end of the head. In the mouth, even with the naked eye, you can see the jaws, studded with numerous teeth, however, small ones. If perches start their hunt, then someone will definitely not be in trouble!
Predatory lake fish can pursue its prey long and hard. The perch rushes after it, opening its huge mouth and making a kind of “champing”. Fishermen say that a frightened victim often jumps out of the water, but this still does not save her: the perch gets what he wants. Sometimes these predators, too carried away by the pursuit of their prey, run aground after it, and sometimes onto the coastal sand … In general, perches are predators from God: these voraciouscreatures will not miss any living creature that can fit in their wide mouth.
Common pike
Common pike is a predatory fish inhabiting the fresh waters of North America and all of Eurasia. Usually it can be found in the coastal zone, in water thickets, in slow-flowing or completely stagnant waters. From this point of view, pikes are river predators. But often they are also found in desalinated areas of certain seas. For example, you can meet pike in the Riga, Finnish and Curonian bays of the B altic Sea, as well as in the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. So from this point of view, pikes are predatory fish of the sea.
What does the common pike eat?
Its main diet is based on representatives of various types of fish. For example, they are happy to attack:
- perches;
- ruff;
- minnows;
- scavengers;
- golyanov;
- gusteru;
- charters;
- steam bulls.
Answering the question about which fish eats what, avid fishermen say that it is the pike that comes to mind that eats roach with pleasure. This is understandable: the fact is that the pike is the unspoken symbol of all river predators in our country, and the roach is her favorite food.
Ichthyologists describe cases when these fish grabbed and dragged mice, rats, little ducklings, waders and even squirrels into the water! All these animals crossed freshwater bodies during their seasonal migrations. Large individuals can generally attack adult ducks, especially intheir molting period. In spring and at the beginning of the summer season, pikes readily feed on crayfish and frogs. By the way, a fish that is almost twice the size of the predator itself can often become a victim of a pike!
The most dangerous and predatory fish on Earth is the white shark
The predatory fish, called the man-eating shark, carcharodon, or great white shark, is the most feared and one of the largest fish on our planet. On average, these predators grow up to 4.7 meters in length, however, ichthyologists have recorded individual individuals reaching 7 meters in length and weighing up to 1900 kilograms. Sharks do not have bones, their skeleton consists entirely of cartilage. The skin of many of them is covered with razor-sharp spines. It is curious that the inhabitants of some islands use shark skin as a grinding material.
Where do white sharks live?
The area of their distribution is huge! These predators live in open oceans and coastal waters of the island and continental shelves, the temperature of which reaches 13-25 degrees Celsius. But there are also sharks who prefer to swim in tropical waters. The main territory of the accumulation of these monsters is the coastal waters of Baja California (Mexico), California (USA), New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. This terrible fish can be found (but it is better not to meet!) And off the East coast of the USA, off the coast of the island of Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, etc. It inhabits the Red Sea (Indian Ocean), the Seychelles, the waters of Mauritius andetc.
What does the great white shark eat?
White sharks are predatory fish (photo below), devouring everything in their path. “A wolf on land is a shark in the sea,” sailors say. And not in vain! These dangerous predators pursue ships in flocks in anticipation that a person or other living creatures will fall into the water. But, as a rule, this does not happen, so white sharks (and sharks in general) with great pleasure eat everything that ill-mannered people do not throw into trash cans, but straight from ships into the seas and oceans:
- tin cans;
- flasks;
- empty bottles;
- disposable tableware;
- other rubbish.
If we talk about animal feed, then these fish hunt mainly in the daytime and eat animals such as:
- stingrays;
- tuna;
- other sharks;
- dolphins;
- porpoises;
- whales;
- seals;
- sea lions;
- fur seals;
- sea otters;
- sea turtles;
- birds.
White sharks can also be scavengers: they will never bypass the carcass of a dead whale. By the way, the hunting tactics of these predators directly depends on this or that prey. For example, off Force Island, they attack Cape seals at high speeds, and off the coast of California, they immobilize northern elephant seals. These marine predators grab common seals right from the surface of the water, dragging them with them into the depths of the sea.
