What Do Loaches Eat? An Introduction to the Diet of Wild and Farmed Loaches

The loach is a typical omnivorous fish, with a broad and varied diet, and it is not picky about food. Wild loaches live in shallow-water environments such as ponds, ditches and rice paddies, where they mainly feed on zooplankton, aquatic insects, small crustaceans and algae, and also take in humus on the bottom, organic detritus and fragments of tender plant shoots.

The food differs somewhat across growth stages. At the fry stage the fish are small and prefer small plankton such as rotifers and cladocerans; as they grow larger their feeding ability increases, and adult loaches prey on benthic animals such as chironomid larvae and aquatic earthworms, with their diet shifting more toward animal-based feed.

In artificial farming, feed can be given that is formulated from ingredients such as fish meal, soybean cake, rapeseed cake, wheat bran and rice bran, or a special compound feed for loaches can be used. Loaches have the habit of foraging in the evening and at night, so feeding should be arranged around the evening, with fixed times, fixed spots and fixed amounts to reduce water pollution from leftover feed.

Water temperature noticeably affects the loach's appetite. When the water temperature is too low, feeding decreases, and in winter the fish basically stop eating and enter an overwintering state; when the water temperature is suitable, they eat most actively. In daily management, the feeding amount should be adjusted flexibly according to the weather, water quality and feeding situation; overfeeding easily spoils the water quality and may also trigger diseases such as enteritis and fin rot.