What do snakehead fish eat? A detailed explanation of the snakehead fish's diet
The snakehead fish is a common food fish in China, with farming characteristics such as large individual size, fast growth and high economic value. It is distributed across all major river systems in China. It is a ferocious carnivorous fish with an enormous appetite and can often eat all the other fish in a lake or pond. Let's take a look below at what the snakehead fish eats!
What do snakehead fish eat
The snakehead fish is a ferocious carnivorous fish and is rather greedy. Its prey varies with the size of the fish. Fry less than 3 cm in body length mainly feed on copepods, cladocerans and chironomid larvae; fry less than 3-8 cm in body length feed on aquatic insect larvae, tadpoles, small shrimp, fry and so on; adult fish over 20 cm in body length prey on various small fish (crucian carp, sharpbelly, barbel chub, loach and various juvenile fish) and frogs.
The predatory habits of the snakehead fish
The snakehead fish swims slowly and generally does not chase prey when hunting. Instead, it hides near aquatic plants or other cover and watches its surroundings intently. Once it finds suitable live prey such as fish swimming nearby, it strikes quickly and captures it in one go. It has a large food intake and can often swallow live prey about half its own body length, and its stomach can hold up to around 60% of its body weight at maximum capacity. According to dissection, a 500-gram snakehead fish swallowed 8 grass carp fry 10 cm long in a relatively short time. It also has a cannibalistic habit and can swallow individuals of the same species less than two-thirds of its own body length.
The amount the snakehead fish eats is closely related to water temperature. In summer when the water temperature is high, it is quite greedy and eats a lot. When the water temperature is below 12°C, it stops feeding. Under artificial rearing conditions, when animal feed is insufficient, it can also feed on artificial compound feed such as soybean cake, rapeseed cake and fish meal.
The growing environment of the snakehead fish
1. A bottom-dwelling fish: The snakehead fish is a benthic fish. It usually inhabits still or slightly flowing water with dense aquatic plants and soft bottom mud, and is found throughout lakes, rivers, reservoirs, ponds and other waters. It often lurks in the bottom layer of the water, swaying its pectoral fins to maintain body balance.
2. Strong adaptability: The snakehead fish is highly adaptable to changes in environmental factors in the water, especially to hypoxia, water temperature and poor water quality. When the water is short of oxygen, it can raise its head above the surface. The rear part is laterally compressed. The head is long, slightly flat and broad at the front and somewhat raised at the rear. With the help of the suprabranchial organ, formed in the gill cavity by bony plates extending from the upper branchial bone on the dorsal side of the first gill arch and the hyomandibula, it directly breathes oxygen from the air. Therefore, even in moist areas with little or no water, it can survive for a fairly long time. When the temperature range is 10°C to snakehead fish 15°C, it can leave the water for 3 to 4 days.
3. Temperature environment: The survival water temperature for the snakehead fish is 0-41°C, and the most suitable water temperature is 16-30°C. When the water temperature reaches above 8°C in spring, it often moves in the middle and upper layers of the water. In summer it moves in the upper layer of the water. When the water temperature drops below 6°C in autumn, it swims slowly and often lurks in deep water. When the water temperature approaches 0°C in winter, it lies dormant in the bottom mud and stops eating and moving.
4. Jumping ability: The snakehead fish has a very strong jumping ability. When the weather is sultry and rain raises the water level, it often leaps out of the water and escapes along the pond embankment. When struck by flowing water, it will also leap and flee. If there is insufficient bait in the pond where it lives, it will also move to another pond. When moving, its body moves slowly forward in a snake-like manner.