SeaQuarium

Fishy Chains

Food chains show what Fish and Marine animals eat. Most food chains start off with plants, a creature will eat a plant and quite often another creature will eat that creature. Humans are at the top of the food chain as it is very rare for another animal to eat a Human. Below is an example of a food chain.

	Phytoplankton Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that float freely in the water. Phytoplanktons is made up of tiny plants. A food chain always starts with a plant.

	Zooplankton Phytoplankton are eaten by Zoolankton which are microscopic animals, some are larval or very immature stages of larger animals. Zooplankton is an important source of food for many other marine creatures and therefore low in this food chain.

	Coral Coral are small marine invertebrate animals which feed on Zooplankton. When hard Corals die they leave an internal, rock-like, chalky skeleton which make up our Coral Reefs. Coral is in the middle of this food chain.

	Polyp Butterflyfish Polyp Butterflyfish are just one of many species of fish that feed on the coral. They also use the Corals as a hiding place when they spot predators swimming nearby. They are high in this food chain.

	Humans Humans are at the top of this food chain and eat many varieties of fish. Although fish such as Cod and Salmon are much more popular to eat than tropical fish, tropical fish are more likely to be kept as pets because of their beautiful colourings.