Herbivorous fish, or phytophages (from the words "phyto" - a plant and "phage" - a devourer), can be found in any body of water on our planet, except perhaps Lake Baikal. Representatives of this group are also bred in home aquariums. What is their popularity?
It is customary to divide fish into several groups: herbivorous, animal-eating (carnivorous) and omnivorous. Herbivorous, as the name suggests, refers to fish that feed on various parts of aquatic plants.
To understand why in fish farming the preference is given to breeding herbivorous fish, let us arrange all the inhabitants of the reservoir according to the nature of their nutrition. The result is a food chain, each link of which is food for the next. The food chain of the reservoir looks like this: aquatic plants - invertebrates - fish. It is phytophages that are the end product of the shortest food chain of any body of water: algae - fish.
For comparison, the food chain for predatory fish looks like this: algae - invertebrates - benthos (organisms that live on the bottom or in the ground) - small fish - predatory fish. If we take into account that with an elongated food chain, the energy consumption for obtaining the final product (fish) increases many times over, it becomes clear that it is energetically more profitable to breed herbivorous fish. In addition, phytophages grow much faster than carnivorous ones, which means they are more actively used for breeding.
Unlike industrial fish farming, there is no doubt about the interest in breeding herbivorous fish for aquariums and ornamental ponds. This is their good looks. But in the case of ornamental fish, their love for plants is more of a disadvantage. Indeed, when decorating an aquarium or reservoir, it should be borne in mind that these fish consider any plant as a source of food. In addition, herbivorous fish feed only a little, but often. Their need for food arises in 2-3 hours, and by the morning they turn out to be very hungry.
