If you are interested in finding what fish species are considered herbivores then you’ve come to the right article!
As, in this article, I’ll share the answer to this question with you and after you’ve read the answer then I’ll also cover a few more closely related questions which will, piece by piece, extend your knowledge even more.
So, I hope you learn a lot from this article!
What fish are herbivores?
Herbivorous fish are the types of fish that have a plant-based diet to obtain all the energy they need to survive.
By constantly grazing on the encrusting algae on rocks, substrate wood, and water basins, these types of fish keep the algae in check, helping slow down the coral growths from competing for the limited space.
Several fish are considered to be herbivores which include:
- The Acanthurus lineatus, also renowned as the lined surgeonfish, is a member of the family Acanthuridae. Other common names that were given to this fish include the blue-banded surgeonfish, blue-lined surgeonfish, clown surgeonfish, pajama tang, striped surgeonfish, and zebra surgeonfish.
- The Acanthurus nigrofuscus, also renowned as the lavender tang or spot-cheeked surgeonfish is commonly found in Hawaii and the Indo-Pacific.
- The Zebrasoma scopas, also renowned as the brown tang, belongs to the genius of surgeon fishes that commonly habit the Pacific and Indian oceans. Some common names given to them include the two-tone tang, scopas tang, or brush-tail tang.
- The parrot fish family.
Are goldfish herbivores?
Herbivorous fish are those kinds of fish that primarily feed on plants to obtain the energy needed to survive.
Goldfish instead feed on anything when given a chance, for instance, they feed on plants, insects such as mosquito larvae, zooplankton, detritus, and crustaceans in the wild.
Based on their eating habits, we can point out that goldfish feed on plants and animals, making them exceptionally omnivores.
So, goldfish aren’t considered herbivores.
Check out the video below if you want to see goldfish eating bloodworms.
How many fish are herbivores?
Herbivorous fish are widely acknowledged as the cornerstones that maintain the health and resilience of aquatic ecosystems.
Therefore, understanding and quantifying the impact of these herbivores on the aquatic ecosystem is vital to our abilities to manage these systems.
According to research conducted by ResearchGate on various fish species, about 5% of all fish species are herbivores, with only 30% being marine and mostly living in coral reefs.
The rest of the majority, such as tuna and salmon, were carnivores with an evolutionary advantage of feeding on both plant-based and meat-based foods.
Is a small fish an herbivore?
Typically, some small fish are herbivores that feed on algae and other plant matters.
However, it’s key to note that not all small fish will be herbivores since some of them mostly feed on meat-based foods to obtain the energy needed to survive.
Hence making them fall under the category of carnivorous fish.
Good examples of these carnivorous fish are the tetra, billfish, barracuda, walleye, salmon, and betta fish.
What freshwater fish are herbivores?
Herbivorous freshwater fish possess a feeding adaptation finely adapted to plant consumption in fresh waters such as lakes and rivers with salinity levels being below 1.05%.
The reasons for these adaptations range from size to evolutionary advantage, to behavior and rampant herbivory.
However, it’s vital to note that most of the adaptations, especially for freshwater fish, are internal.
Nevertheless, there are various freshwater herbivorous fish species.
Some of them include:
- The various types of plecos (Hypostomus, Glyptoperichthys, and Liposarcus).
- The bristlenose catfishes (Ancistrus spp).
- The panaques or sucker catfishes (Panaque spp).
What ocean fish are herbivores?
Unlike carnivorous fish that require a small amount of meat to satisfy their energy requirement, herbivorous fish need more plants to provide adequate energy for survival.
This is why the ocean herbivores have a voracious appetite for the ocean vegetation.
They drift across the ocean surface, grazing opportunistically.
Some of the plant-eating fish in the ocean include the parrotfish, damselfish, unicornfish, and the surgeonfish.
What aquarium fish are herbivores?
A nicely planted tank (aquarium) is a beautiful thing to watch.
Watching the fish swim peacefully in and out of your foliage is always entertaining.
However, the most common mistake made by several aquarium amateurs is to place a given type of fish in the wrong habitat.
The result is an arena of battles and harassed fish that fail to thrive.
To avoid this mistake, you must obtain knowledge of the best-known fish species for your aquarium-keeping hobby to thrive.
For instance, the best-known herbivorous fishes for aquariums include:
- The various pleco species (Hypostomus, Glyptoperichthys, and Liposarcus).
- The bristlenose catfishes (Ancistrus spp).
- The Panaques or sucker catfishes (Panaque spp).
Check out the video below if you want to learn about more herbivorous fish species that can be kept in freshwater aquariums.
What fish eat herbivores?
A food web is made up of all the interconnected and overlapping food chains that are present in an ecosystem.
For the ecosystem to stay balanced, there must be a correct balance of different species since too many or even too few of a given species can cause a population crash.
This is why we get the scenario of who eats who.
To maintain a state of equilibrium in the water, the over 30,000 species of fish have to be directly proportional to the aquatic food available.
The scarcity of food to feed this whole population has led to fish evolving from being complete herbivores to omnivores and even carnivores that feed on other fish.
Some of the known carnivorous fish that eat herbivorous fish include:
- Betta fish.
- Tetra fish.
- The Oscar fish.
- Red-bellied piranhas.
- The Arowana fish.
- The puffer fish.
- The Discus fish.
- The clown loach.
- The butterflyfish.
- The brown-banded bamboo sharks.
