Fish food
Nearly everything that lives in the water is food for a hungry fish.
In the ocean, most fish eat only other fish. Ocean cod, hake, tarpon,
and tuna dine on smaller herrings, sardines, and anchovies. And the big
fish are themselves gulped down by sharks. Sharks will eat any animal,
dead or alive.
In rivers and lakes, fish eat fish, too. But some of them add other
tasty things to their fish diet. Trout jump out of the water to snap at
flying insects. Sturgeons dine on snails, crayfish, and insects. Big,
hungry bass, pike, and bowfins gobble up frogs, baby ducks, and even
baby muskrats.
Some kinds of fish eat only plants. Carp and suckermouth catfish swim
along at the bottom of rivers and ponds. With tiny teeth they chew up
bits of plants that grow in the mud.
A few kinds of fish eat both plants and animals. Parrot fish eat seaweed
and tiny worms that live in coral. The ocean sunfish eats tiny shrimps,
baby fish, jellyfish, and tiny plants called algae.
A Pumpkinseed Sunfish Eating a Worm
Freshwater Fish
