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26/02/16 9:33 am
The Survival of Fish
Getting Food
All animals need food to survive.
Fish survive by eating plants and small creatures like shellfish.
Many fish survive by eating other fish.
The grey reef shark eats fish and squid.
You can tell what a fish likes to eat by the shape of its teeth.
Fish with sharp, pointed teeth eat other fish.
The barracuda eats fish.
Can you tell what this fish likes to eat?
Piranhas like to eat other fish.
A group of piranhas can eat a large animal by ripping it into small pieces.
The piranha also eats fruits and seeds.
A piranha of the Amazon River
Many sharks have rows and rows of sharply pointed teeth.
These harks eat other animals.
They eat each other, too.
The upper and lower jaw of grey nurse shark showing the rows of teeth. When a front tooth
wears down or falls out, a tooth from the next row moves forward to replace it.
Did you know that the largest fish has some of the smallest teeth?
The whale shark is the largest fish in the world.
It has rows and rows of small teeth in its mouth, along its gills and in its throat.
The whale shark uses its teeth to filter small floating creatures from the water.
The whale shark can grow to fifteen meters long.
Lamprey do not have jaws, but they do have a sucking mouth.
How do you think this fish eats?
A short-headed lamprey.
A lamprey's mouth has rows and rows of sharp teeth.
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A lamprey feeds by attaching itself to another fish and sucking its blood.
Catfish live in dark muddy rivers.
How does a catfish find its food?
Look at those whiskers, or barbels, near the catfish's mouth.
A catfish uses its barbels to feel for food on the bottom of the river.
Some fish have developed special ways to get their food.
The electric eel can give an electric shock to kill any fish that coms near it.
The electric eel has enough power in tis tail to light up to twelve ordinary light bulbs.
A trout will rise to the surface of the water to catch drowning insects.
The anglerfish goes fishing for its meals.
Trout
The anglerfish has a fin on its head that looks like bait.
Fish that come to look at the bait are eaten.
The archerfish "shoots" its food.
The archerfish squirts a jet of water at an insect sitting on a leaf just above the water surface.
The water knocks the insect into the water where it is eaten.
Protection from Enemies
To survive, animals must protect themselves from their enemies.
Fish have different ways of protecting themselves.
Small fish can quickly hide between rocks or in old shells.
A goby hiding in an old barnacle shell.
Other fish use weapons to scare away their enemies.
The surgeonfish has two hidden spines near the base of its tail.
The spine can be flicked out like a knife if the surgeonfish is attacked.
Can you see the spine at the base of this surgeonfish's tail?
How does this fish protect itself?
The porcupine fish is covered with prickly spines.
When it is attacked, the porcupine fish puffs up its body like a balloon.
How does this fish protect itself?
The trunkfish protects itself with armor.
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Its whole body, except for its mouth, eyes, gills, fins and tail, is covered with hard bony plates.
Some fish blend in with the background and make it hard for their enemies to see them.
This is called camouflage.
Fish that are camouflaged can also hunt other creatures without being seen.
The enemies of the leafy seadragon have a hard time seeing it in the seaweed.
Can you see the camouflaged fish in these pictures?
A scorpion fish
A pipefish
Some fish use colors and patterns to protect them from their enemies.
Look at this picture.
A clown trigger fish
If you were a big fish looking for food and you suddenly saw a clown triggerfish, the fish's bright
color and bold patterns would startle you and make it hard for you to know where to attack.
The comet fish has a spot near its tail that looks like an eye.
This "eye" fools the fish's enemies.
They think that the "eye" is on the head of the comet fish, and this is the part they attack. But
the comet fish flicks its tail and swims away.
Can you see this comet fish's real eye? The fish's head is on the right.
Some fish use poison to defend themselves against their enemies.
The stingray has a poisonous stinger at the base of its tail.
When attacked, the ray whips its tail back and forth to sting and poison its attacker.
Some fish are protected by other creatures.
Clownfish hide among the poisonous tentacles of a sea anemone without being hurt.
Clownfish are covered with a thick layer of slime that helps protect them from the anemone's
poison.
Shepherd fish swim among the stinging tentacles of the Portuguese man-of-war, a large
jellyfish-like animal.
Fish that try to catch the shepherd fish get stung and caught in the tentacles.
The shepherd fish gets protection and food from the Portuguese man-of-war.
Many fish swim together in large groups called schools, or shoals.
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Some fish, such as herring, swim in huge schools of over a million fish.
How does swimming in a large school of fish protect each fish?
A school of trevally
There are so many fish in a school that the fish's enemies do not know which one to catch!
Fish protect themselves in different ways.
Do you know how these fish are protecting themselves?
A sole
Blue chromis
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