They’re mainly bottom feeders, living off debris, dead fish, and algae on the plants and floor of their homes.Īdding scavengers to an aquarium can be a great investment. Scavenger fish may sound disgusting, but their eating patterns are essential in maintaining the environment by keeping the waters in which they live clean. Drowned birds/animals that have fallen into the water (often whales, seals, polar bears, etc.

Their diet in the wild may typically consist of the following: In short, they scavenge and will eat anything they can get ahold of. Read on to learn more about these fish species, what they eat, and how you can house some of your own in your home aquarium! What Is a Scavenger Fish?Ī scavenger fish can easily be defined by exploring what they eat. In the wild, the majority of fish mostly live on a diet of algae, plankton, worms, and other fish and are usually defined as ‘Carnivorous,’ ‘Herbivorous,’ or ‘Omnivorous’ – but there are a select few species that feed entirely as scavengers. Scavengers are known opportunists – eating anything and everything they can get their fins on. And although most fish are not scavengers, it’s good to get an idea of which ones are and what they eat (mostly dead or dying animals – ew), as adding some to your tank set-up could be a great call. This level of contribution is probably sufficient to allow larger populations of these scavenging species to exist than would otherwise be possible.You may think you’re not super familiar with scavenger fish, heck, you might not even know what the term implies, but I’m certain you’ll be familiar with many species of fish that are, in fact, scavengers!īottom-dwellers such as catfish, eels, and eelpouts, as well as hagfish, lampreys, remoras, and even some sharks, are all types of scavenger fish. The energy available from discards could potentially provide the identified marine discard scavengers on the fishing grounds with 37% of their energetic requirements during the fishing season. glutinosa was the most abundant scavenger, and made up 79% by weight of all identified marine scavengers on the fishing grounds. Species identified as marine discard scavengers included Liocarcinus depurator, Asterias rubens, Neptunea antiqua, Pagurus bernhardus, Carcinus maenas, Cancer pagurus and Myxine glutinosa. Seabirds utilised an estimated 57% of the discarded material most discarding (83%) took place over the fishing grounds. A bioenergetic model was devised to evaluate the importance of discards to marine scavengers. Discard experiments combined with data from commercial vessels provided estimates of the partitioning of discards between aerial and marine scavengers and the spatial distribution of discarding. Field studies were used to identify marine scavenger species and estimate their abundance. The aim of this study was to determine whether the quantity and quality of discarded material from the intensively fished English Nephrops norvegicus fishery is such that it has a positive effect on marine scavenger populations. Organisms that do not survive the discarding process can provide an additional food source to scavenging species. Importance of discards from the English Nephrops norvegicus fishery in the North Sea to marine scavengersĭiscards refer to that part of the catch which is returned to the sea during commercial fishing operations.

Sea scavengers