Can Fish Chew?

[Stefan]

I was just sitting thinking about piking, an wondering how big a bait would a fish take?

So this led me on to thinking...

When really big fish, e.g. carp die in the water. They rot, right? So pike/perch etc... can't take them whole (lets say it's a 20lb carp dead) so can they chew parts of flesh off, take then away and swallow them in the normal way?

Thanks - Stefan

 

P.S. - I don't sit thinking of dead things all the time!

[davidP]

Simple answer I think is no - they don't have cutting teeth with which to bite out lumps. I would suspect that until it has broken down a bit and the various insects and the like have started to break it up then they won't be able to deal with it. Once it's started to decompose then they can start to break bits off by sucking, shaking, bumping etc.

[davidbyrne046]

ok.around summer pike are very lazy.the hang in the water and if they want food they just open wide and feed on fry.fry go round in big shoals of about a hundred.if a dead carp or any fish is lying there in front of the pikes nose the pike might not bite.they are just not pushed.if you want to catch pike now,use lures or even wobble deadbait.Now if using any of these 2 methods make sure u annoy the pike.make sharp movements with the rod tip and the pike become irritated and go to investigate.I REALLY HOPE THAT HELPS.THATS THE SUMMER FOR U

[twitchandjerk]

DavidP. Take a closer look at your avater! or mine! Tiger fish can cut an nberi in half in a single bite and nberi have hard scales. My koi can bite pieces off a slice of bread. Also I have had two and three inch perch chase a lure twice their size and when i stopped the lure they had a bite at it.

 

I think providing the target is soft enough a good set of toothless gums will break off some food.

 

Thinking a bit more (not easy at this time of night), fish can chew (as opposed to bite). Most fish have a boney tongue and a hard roof to their mouth. These two plates when rubbed together act just like our back teeth.

 

[ 08. June 2003, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: twitchandjerk ]

[Apache]

Most fish has phragneal (sp?) teeth in their throats to chew dont they???

[davidP]

twitchandjerk:

DavidP. Take a closer look at your avater! or mine! Tiger fish can cut an nberi in half in a single bite and nberi have hard scales. My koi can bite pieces off a slice of bread. Also I have had two and three inch perch chase a lure twice their size and when i stopped the lure they had a bite at it.

 

I think providing the target is soft enough a good set of toothless gums will break off some food.

 

Thinking a bit more (not easy at this time of night), fish can chew (as opposed to bite). Most fish have a boney tongue and a hard roof to their mouth. These two plates when rubbed together act just like our back teeth.

Agree entirely about the tigerfish - they take a chunk out and then finish off the prey at their leisure. Much the same for piranha, but in the UK we simply don't have fish with that find of dentistry. I seriously doubt that any UK freshwater fish could do much damage to a recently dead large fish - they'd simply have to wait for it to decompose a bit. I suppose they may be able to have a go at the fins, but what would they get hold of on the rest of the fish to get any kind of leverage to break bits off. Possibly the only one with a chance would be the eel as they have small teeth, but even those are grippers rather than cutters.

[davidP]

Apache:

Most fish has phragneal (sp?) teeth in their throats to chew dont they???

Yes they do (pharyngeal), some of them quite ferocious (NEVER put you finger down a chubs throat!). But they are throat teeth i.e. they're right at the back of the mouth. This means to use them the fish has to manoeuver whatever it's trying to eat right to the back of it's mouth, so unless it will fit in it's mouth it can't use them.

[Stefan]

Thanks...

Stefan