Probably a larger group than you expected, right? So, after the startling revelation that you’ve been eating bottom-feeders all your life, let’s get into the nitty gritty. In the fish world, bottom-feeders include: Some of these you’d eat, some you’d consider a delicacy and pay a small fortune to eat, and some you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole! This could be a lake, river, ocean or even a teeny tiny pond in your backyard!Ĭommon bottom-feeding animals include crabs, lobster and crayfish, shrimp, shellfish, sea anemones, snails, starfish and sea cucumbers. Should you be eating bottom-feeders, or avoiding them like the dirty scavengers we think them to be? What are bottom-feeders?Ī bottom-feeder is any aquatic animal which spends some or all of its life feeding on or near the bottom of a water body. Let’s get to the bottom of things (surprisingly, pun unintended) and sort out fact from fiction. And they’re amongst the most healthy foods on the planet, both in the water and out. Animals like sardines, anchovies, mackerel, squid, octopus, shrimp and shellfish are all classified as bottom-feeders.

Many of the water-based animals which you now consider to be healthy are in fact bottom-feeders, though it’s likely that you’ve not yet made that connection. The way you see it, an animal which spends its life on the lake floor or seafloor must be dirtier than the clean, crisp salmon cruising above.īut as with many misconceptions instilled into us by modern society, those poor bottom-feeders might deserve far more credit than you give them. Plus, let’s face it, that subconscious aversion to things which we perceive as dirty is very much at play. The health of those animals would then pass into you when you eat them. It stands to reason that such animals would be happier and healthier in the cleaner, clearer parts of the lake, river or ocean. It seems reasonable to assume that you’d be far better off going for those aquatic creatures which live above - closer to the light.

Bottom feeder fish