What Type of Consumer Is the Flying Fish?

In an ecological food chain, consumers are organisms that must consume other organisms to gain energy and sustenance. They are commonly referred to as heterotrophs because, unlike autotrophs like plants and algae, they are not able to fix carbon to make their own food. Heterotrophs include animals, fungus and bacteria.

  1. Types of Consumers

    • The food chain is an ecological system in which different biological organisms are linked based on the types of food they consume. The food chain has three types of consumers: herbivore, carnivore and omnivore. Herbivores eat only plants, whereas carnivores eat only animals. Omnivores eat both plants and animals. The food chain begins with autotrophic organisms that don't eat any other species in the food chain. These autotrophic organisms are followed in the chain by the herbivores that eat them, then the omnivores and carnivores that eat the herbivores. The food chain ends with the organisms that are not consumed by any other organism.

    Where the Flying Fish Fits

    • The flying fish is an omnivore, because it eats both plant life and animals. Its diet generally consists of small crustaceans and plankton. Plankton is made up of various types of plants and animals that drift in the pelagic zone of a body of water, the area closest to the surface. Because plankton is made up of both small plants and animals and the flying fish consumes them, the flying fish is an omnivore.

    Habitat

    • Species of flying fish can be found living in all of Earth's oceans, but they are most commonly seen in warm subtropical and tropical waters. They live in the pelagic zone. Living in that near-surface part of the ocean enables them to feed on plant and animal plankton found drifting there and to escape predators by leaping out of the water. Some other fish and marine animals that occupy that zone are tuna, ocean sharks, ocean sunfish and dolphins.

    Other Fish

    • While the flying fish is an omnivore, not all fish follow the same diet. Herbivorous fish such as the spotted rabbitfish and the clown surgeon fish feed only on plant matter, and carnivorous fish such as the shark and the tuna prey on animals, with tuna feeding on flying fish. The relationships among these fish helps to form a small part of the greater biological food chain.