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A school of large pelagic predator fish (bluefin trevally) sizing up a school of small pelagic prey fish (). Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs.
Pelagic fish are often migratory forage fish, which feed on plankton, and the larger predatory fish that follow and feed on the forage fish. Examples of migratory forage fish are herring, anchovies, capelin, and menhaden. Examples of larger pelagic fish which prey on the forage fish are billfish, tuna, and oceanic sharks. [citation needed]
Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish that feed on planktons (i.e. planktivores) and other small aquatic organisms (e.g. krill). They are in turn preyed upon by various predators including larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals , this making them keystone species in their aquatic ecosystems .
The pelagic food web, ... The Arctic food web is complex. The loss of sea ice can ultimately affect the entire food web, from algae and plankton to fish to mammals.
The phytoplankton are eaten by zooplankton, which in turn are eaten by predatory zooplankton. Filter feeders then eat the plankton and larger predatory fish eat the filter feeders (see diagram at the right). [19] Most filter-feeding pelagic fish found in coastal waters are small, silvery forage fish.
In the pelagic zone, herbivores graze on periphyton and macrophytes or pick phytoplankton out of the water column. Carnivores include fishes that feed on zooplankton in the water column (zooplanktivores), insects at the water's surface, on benthic structures, or in the sediment ( insectivores ), and those that feed on other fish ( piscivores ).
Menhaden are a pelagic schooling fish that migrate inshore during the summer and off-shore in the winter months. The juvenile and larval menhaden migrate to shore and inland waterways through currents during summer months to grow while feeding on the phytoplankton and eventually zooplankton once they have matured.
The fish in the different pelagic and deep water benthic zones are physically structured, and behave in ways, that differ markedly from each other. Groups of coexisting species within each zone all seem to operate in similar ways, such as the small mesopelagic vertically migrating plankton-feeders, the bathypelagic anglerfishes , and the deep ...