What food does the silver carp eat? Introduction to its feeding habits and types of bait

The silver carp belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, and is one of the famous Four Major Chinese Carps. In spring, summer and autumn, it swims and forages in the middle and upper layers of the water for the vast majority of the time, while in winter it dives into deep water to overwinter. It is distributed across all the major river systems nationwide, and is often polycultured with grass carp and common carp. Let us take a look below at what food the silver carp eats!

What food does the silver carp eat?

1. The silver carp is a typical filter-feeding fish, using the special structure of its gills to filter plankton from the water, and it feeds on plankton throughout its life. At the fry stage it mainly eats zooplankton, and once it grows to more than 1.5 cm it gradually switches to eating phytoplankton. It also readily eats the feces of grass carp and applied chicken and cattle manure, as well as soybean milk, soybean residue powder, wheat bran and rice bran, and it is even fonder of artificial micro-pellet compound feed.

2. The silver carp is very interested in sour-tasting food and also has a strong appetite for fermented grain bait. The silver carp likes to eat decomposing food and is often raised together with grass carp, with the silver carp eating the feces of the grass carp, hence the saying that one grass carp feeds three silver carp.

3. The silver carp's bait and food show obvious seasonality. In spring and autumn, besides plankton, it also eats large amounts of detritus-type bait. In summer, the lower the water level, the greater its food intake, while in winter it overwinters, eating little and moving little.

Population distribution of the silver carp

The suitable growth temperature of the silver carp is the same as that of the grass carp. During the growing season, it mostly fattens in river tributaries and lakes, and in low-temperature seasons its appetite declines but it still feeds, mostly gathering in the riverbed and the depths of lakes to overwinter. Its distribution range is relatively wide, and it is found in all regions of our country, making it the most widely distributed fish among freshwater fish in our country.

Natural bait of the silver carp

1. Phytoplankton: the bait value of different species of phytoplankton is not the same. Since the silver carp, like other fish, cannot digest cellulose, pectin and chitin, it is difficult for it to utilize most blue-green algae, senescent green algae cells, euglenoids and so on. It can fairly well digest and utilize golden algae, cryptomonads, diatoms and some dinoflagellates, yellow-green algae, green algae, euglenoids, blue-green algae and so on.

2. Zooplankton: zooplankton is a part of the silver carp's food intake. Generally, fish at the juvenile stage all take them as their main food. The main categories are protozoans, rotifers, cladocerans and copepods.

① Protozoans: protozoans are single-celled animals, without differentiation of tissues and organs, but with functions such as respiration, excretion, reproduction and sensation.

② Rotifers: rotifers are filter feeders, feeding on planktonic algae, protozoans, bacteria and organic detritus. They are highly adaptable and can survive in all types of water bodies, and are especially common in artificially fertilized ponds, reservoirs and ditches. They are palatable bait for various fish at the juvenile stage.

③ Cladocerans: cladocerans are commonly known as water fleas, also called red worms. They are widely distributed in water bodies such as lakes, ponds and reservoirs, and mainly filter-feed on bacteria, single-celled algae and organic detritus. They grow and reproduce quickly and have high nutritional value, and are the main bait of the silver carp. In any water body with a large number of cladocerans, the fish yield is generally very high.

④ Copepods: small crustaceans such as Cyclops and Diaptomus are called copepods. They mostly feed on planktonic algae and are good bait.