Bream are common freshwater fish found in a variety of habitats, including rivers, lakes, and estuaries. They are known for their adaptability and often form large groups, moving slowly as they feed. These fish exhibit a varied and opportunistic diet, consuming available food sources.
What Bream Consume
Bream primarily consume a diverse array of animal-based foods, primarily invertebrates. Crustaceans are a staple, including small crabs, shrimp, and prawns, which bream can effectively process due to their powerful, crushing teeth. They also favor mollusks such as mussels, clams, and oysters, utilizing their specialized teeth to break through hard shells.
Aquatic insects, both larvae and adults, along with various types of worms like sandworms, earthworms, and Tubifex worms, are common food items. These are often found by bream foraging along the bottom. Smaller bream may filter feed on microscopic organisms such as daphnia and copepods.
While largely carnivorous, bream also incorporate plant matter into their diet. This includes algae, detritus, and aquatic vegetation. This plant material can become a more significant food source when other prey is scarce.
Larger bream sometimes opportunistically prey on small fish and fry, including their own or other species like anchovies, whitebait, and sprat. Bream are considered omnivorous, adapting their consumption to the prevailing food supply.
Environmental and Developmental Influences on Diet
The diet of bream changes as they mature. Younger bream typically feed on zooplankton, polychaete larvae, and small crustaceans due to their size and mouth structure. As bream increase in size, their diet shifts to larger prey, such as larger invertebrates and small fish.
Seasonal variations also influence their diet. For instance, the availability of insects may increase during warmer months, leading to higher consumption. During colder periods, bream might rely more on detritus or less active food sources, reflecting ecosystem productivity changes.
The specific habitat a bream occupies directly influences its food choices. Bream in rivers and lakes with muddy bottoms often forage for worms and burrowing crustaceans. In rocky areas or coastal bays, they might feed more on crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish found among the rocks and seagrass beds.
Bream also exhibit feeding patterns influenced by the time of day. They often feed more actively during early morning, late evening, or night, especially in warmer conditions. They can locate food at various depths, from grubbing on the bottom to picking items from aquatic vegetation or taking insects from the water’s surface.