Fish is a superclass of aquatic vertebrate animals. Gill breathing is characteristic of them. They are distributed both in fresh and in salt waters; both in mountain streams and in deep oceanic depressions. These creatures play a crucial role in many aquatic ecosystems and are of great economic importance to humans. This is their brief description. As you may have guessed, in this article we will talk about fish, in particular about the predatory inhabitants of the underwater kingdom. We will tell you about the most famous and colorful predators: you will find out what they eat, and what kind of fish they eat.
A bit of lyrics …
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 immediately therein one will see clouds floating in the sky, as well as trees bending over a pond. At this moment, it may seem that the pond is empty and dead, but it is not so! In fact, life is in full swing under this mirror-like surface! Sometimes serious passions even flare up there. One of the main characters in this underwater "play" are fish. You don’t immediately understand what kind of fish it eats, but it happens there with enviable regularity!
What are fish?
We presented you a brief scientific description of these animals above. In simple terms, then fish are usually called all vertebrates that inhabit fresh and salty sources of water. 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), which differ in one way or another, one of which indicates that the fish belong to predatory or peaceful individuals. In this article, we are more interested in predators. Let's find out what kind of fish eats.
Common perch
This is a typical inhabitant of fresh water bodies of our country. Ordinary perch belongs to the most numerous class of highly organized fish - ray-finned. His body is compressed laterally, has an oval shape and consists of three sections: head, trunk, tail. Perch, like all other fish, breathes with gills, so oxygen is vital for it. And he has it, but not quite the same as ours: fish do not extract oxygen from air, but from water. To do this, the fish is forced to swallow air through the mouth, driving it through the gill cavity, located under the gill covers.
What does common perch eat?
Common perch is a predatory lake fish. It is found in rivers, lakes, ponds, reservoirs in Europe and North Asia. Perch was introduced to Africa, New Zealand, Australia. The diet of these fish are other freshwater fish. Initially, fry of perch feed on zooplankton, and as soon as they mature, they begin to hunt young animals of other perch and cyprinids. These fish begin to feed on fry of other relatives, as a rule, in the second year of their life. With age, common perch goes on the hunt for larger and more mobile fish.
How do perches hunt?
Adults are agile and fairly powerful predators. They swim very fast, sometimes completely stop, but then immediately rush forward. These fish have a huge mouth located on the front end of the head. In the mouth, even with the naked eye, you can notice the jaw, studded with numerous teeth, though small. If the perches begin their hunt, then someone will definitely not be good!
Predatory lake fish can pursue their prey for a long time and hard. Perch rushes after it, opening its huge mouth and making a peculiar “champing”. Fishermen say that a terrified victim often jumps out of the water, but this still does not save her: the perch receives what it wants. Sometimes these predators, too carried away by the pursuit of their prey, jump after it, aground, and sometimes on coastal sand … In general, perches are predators from God: these voracious creatures will not miss a single living creature that can fit in their wide jaws.
Common pike
Common pike are predatory fish that inhabit freshwater bodies of North America and all of Eurasia. Usually it can be found in the coastal zone, in water thickets, in low-flow or completely non-flowing waters. From this point of view, pike are river predators. But often they are found on desalinated areas of certain seas. For example, you can meet pike in the Riga, Finnish and Curonian bays of the Baltic Sea, as well as in the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov. So from this point of view, pike are predatory fish of the sea.
What does an ordinary pike eat?
Its main diet is based on representatives of various species of fish. For example, they are happy to attack:
- perches;
- ruff;
- minnows;
- scammers;
- minnow;
- huster;
- char;
- bullheads.
Answering the question of what kind of fish they eat, inveterate fishermen say that they come to mind just a pike, which gladly eats roaches. It is understandable: the fact is that pike is the unspoken symbol of all river predators in our country, and roach is its favorite food.
Ichthyologists describe cases when these fish grabbed and dragged mice, rats, small ducklings, waders and even squirrels with them into the water! All these animals swam across fresh water during their seasonal migrations. Large individuals generally can attack adult ducks, especially during their molting period. In spring and at the beginning of the summer season, pikes eagerly feed on crayfish and frogs. By the way, a fish, almost twice the size of the predator in size, can often become a victim of pike!
The most dangerous and predatory fish on Earth - the white shark
Predatory fish, called the cannibal shark, karharodon, or the great white shark, is the most terrible and one of the largest fish on our planet. On average, these predators grow up to 4.7 meters in length, but ichthyologists have recorded individual individuals reaching 7 meters in length and weighing up to 1900 kilograms. Sharks have no bones, their skeleton is entirely made up of cartilage. The skin of many of them is covered with razor-sharp spikes. It is curious that the inhabitants of some islands use shark skin as a grinding material.
Where do the white sharks live?
The distribution area is huge! These predators live in the open oceans and coastal waters of the island and continental shelves, the temperature of which reaches 13-25 degrees Celsius. But there are sharks who prefer to swim in tropical waters. The main cluster 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 on the East coast of the USA, off the coast of the island of Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, etc. It inhabits the Red Sea (Indian Ocean), Seychelles, the waters of the island of Mauritius, etc.
