For any fish, feeding is one of the main daily activities Fish are vertebrate animals with an exclusively aquatic life, so they spends more time and energy searching for food and eating than any other activity.
As we know, fish lead their lives completely in the water, so their feeding is limited exclusively to aquatic environments. However, over time, they have evolved to be able to have the most varied diet, since within the group of fish there is a great diversity in terms of food sources and there are also species that are very specific when it comes to food. Continue reading this article on our site and we will tell you about the unique diet of the fish that eat algae, as well as other curiosities and characteristics about them.
Types of fish according to their diet
As we explained, from the point of view of diet, fish, like other animals, have different types of needs and food preferences. Depending on this, you can find fish food groups, such as:
- Carnivorous fish.
- Herbivorous fish.
- Detritivorous fish.
- Omnivorous fish.
On the other hand, there are fish with a more sophisticated diet, as we will see later. Although all fish have a well-differentiated mouth, not all of them have developed jaws. In the case of those that do, they can access a wide variety of foods, both animal and plant prey. Herbivorous species may have a smaller mouth fitted with teeth that allow them to scrape algae off corals, for example, or be adapted to crush this material.
You may also be interested in this other article about beautiful and easy to care for fish.
Names of fish that eat algae
Herbivorous fish obtain their nutrients from vegetables, some feed on aquatic plants and other fish eat algae, this will depend on the depth at which they live. There are few species that can be considered as strict herbivores, since they can combine different types of food. These herbivorous species need to be feeding with a very high frequency, since each time they do so they actually manage to assimilate few nutrients. This occurs because when they feed on foods of plant origin, their digestion is slower and more complicated compared to animal products, which is why evolution has endowed them with longer digestive systems, coiled and with a longer operation for almost all day.
Examples of fish that eat algae
This type of fish can have important effects on the populations of certain macroalgae, both in tropical and warm and temperate zones. For example:
- Dark-finned shorty (Kyphosus bigibbus): inhabits the southern coast of Japan, moves in schools and feeds exclusively on species of algae for entire seasons, when they are abundant.
- Salpa (Sarpa salpa): inhabits the Mediterranean, and the adult feeds exclusively on algae, unlike the juvenile which has carnivores.
- Fish of the genus Gyrinocheilus (family Cypriniformes): these are the algae-eating fish par excellence. They are freshwater and inhabit mountain rivers in Southeast Asia, presenting great diversity there, but less in other continents. They have a lower mouth with suction capacity that allows them to "feel" objects. Species of this genus are bred in aquariums due to their ability to clean aquariums, and they feed on algae, thus controlling their proliferation.
- Golden Otocinclo (Otocinclus affinis): it is a small species with gregarious habits (that is, it lives in groups) and inhabits From South America.
- Crossocheilus oblongus: present in fresh waters in Thailand and Indonesia, it is an algae-consuming species with a very high activity.
- Rainbow Gabo (Stiphodon ornatus): It is also well known for consuming algae, it is a fish from warm tropical waters and it is present in Sumatra.
- Fish of the genus Ancistrus (family Loricariidae): several species of fish native to South America also have adaptations in their mouths that It allows them to feed on algae that they search for on the bottoms of freshwater bodies.
For more information you can consult this other article on What do fish eat?
Other algae-eating fish and their ecological importance
Many species of fish that feed on algae play a vital ecological role in aquatic ecosystems. Here are some examples of fish that eat algae and influence the ecosystem:
- Sparisoma viride: Some fish, such as Sparisoma viride, can act by controlling the excessive growth and expansion of some algae. On the other hand, this fish depends on the existence of certain species of algae.
- Parrot fish (Scarus ghobban): another important factor is met by species such as the parrot fish, which, although not a consumer fish Exclusive of algae, it also feeds on the corals that break off from the reefs and then discard them in the form of white sand, which contributes to the formation of beaches and sandbanks.
- Damselfish (Chrysiptera parasema): another example is the damselfish, which discourages the growth of macroalgae that kill corals from some regions of Asia.
Fish that eat algae: other cases
In addition, changes in the populations of herbivorous fish that inhabit aquatic systems, especially marine waters, can cause great modifications of their environments For example, in tropical coral reefs, a decline in herbivorous fish can lead to a change in algae-dominated reefs, since as the number of these fish decreases, other organisms that are voracious predators of these algae (such as sea urchins) sea) lead to the impoverishment of these ecosystems.
On the other hand, many species of fish that eat algae feed on species that cover and take away light and oxygen from coral reefs, and by cleaning them of algae, these fish contribute significantly to your survival.
If you are interested in fish that eat algae to keep your aquarium clean, we recommend you read this other article on our site about Animals that clean the aquarium.