Mackerel is a fish that has voracious feeding habits, consuming various fishes.
Mackerels are fast, agile, and great swimmers, helping them forage food easily.
They also are seen traveling as school fish with their kin.
It means that mackerel eat mackerel as well.
Being carnivores, mackerel has a host of food choices that they feed on.
And that also includes feasting on their kin that is relatively smaller than large mackerels.
Learn more about “what do mackerel eat?” as we highlight their favorite food items.
Insects, Animals, and Fish
Possessing a thin appearance, mackerel can move, travel, and swim anywhere they want.
This also helps them find prey of their choice, so they can gorge on it delightedly.
Their natural habitats also provide them with abundant food supply, at every sea level.
That said, mackerel eat fish, herring, sardines, shrimp, krill, squid, minnows, and other fish.
Other large species of mackerel also gorge on their small species.
Hence, mackerel eat other mackerel as well.
Together with these, mackerel eat jellyfish as they can capture them.
Besides eating large-sized fish, mackerel eat zooplankton as well.
Mackerel eat at night employing the diel vertical migration downwards at the bottom of the water.
In fact, mackerel love to feed on during the nighttime.
Though this might not be their preferred diet, mackerel eat worms to supplement the main staple.
And it is reported that mackerel eat sewage as well.
Fruit, Vegetables, and Plants
While mackerel don’t forage on aquatic plants, they might pick at certain foods like plankton, for example.
Hence, mackerel eat algae, but that’s only when they can’t seem to find other food options.
What mackerel don’t eat?
Mackerel are the forage fish for their predators, especially large fish and humans.
Hence, mackerel don’t eat tuna, anchovies, clownfish, prawns, or crabs.
Apart from these meat items, mackerel don’t eat kelp, seaweed, or seagrass as plants.
