What Eats Flounder?
You can probably guess at least one of the species that dine on flounder, the delicious sea dweller, particularly if you frequent seafood establishments.
Humans
Humans consume a lot of flounder and it quite frequently appears on menus. Sometimes, if you order a fillet or fish-sticks, you will be eating flounder. Of course, other types of fish are used for both of these products, so if you are curious if it is flounder, just ask!
Predators to Flounder During Early Life
Very young flounder have an extremely high mortality rate, which is at least partially due to the wide variety of species that consume them on a daily basis. All creatures that are big enough to devour them will attack them when they are small, swimming through the waters, leaving themselves open to predators. At this age, they are quite susceptible to being eaten and there is not a specific type of fish or animal that goes after them.
Predators to Flounder Through Life
As the flounder start to grow up a bit more, they will begin to settle in shallows, where they spend a decent amount of time.
Growing flounders have a number of predators to watch out for including:
You might be wondering why only the small varieties of snapper and shark eat flounder and not the larger creatures of these species. Well, since they are so big, the larger creatures would have to eat a lot of flounder to fill them up. Therefore, they look for larger-sized meal options to keep them satisfied.
As the flounder grows, the predator list that eats flounder starts to narrow down a little bit because they cannot fit into the mouths of every creature. Furthermore, growing flounders are starting to eat those fish that are smaller than them, so potential flounder prey will want to stay away.
Predators to Big Flounder
As the flounder grow in size, so do their predators. However, their available prey pool grows bigger as well.
The same types of birds will still go after the flounder, but it is mainly the snapper and sharks that eat flounder. Larger breeds of snapper really love flounder. In fact, on the western coast of the United States, some large snapper have been caught that have only the bodies of adult flounder in their stomachs!
Hammerhead sharks are a big predator of flounder as well. Flounder will often hide themselves beneath the ground material; however, hammerhead sharks have electric sensors on their heads that allow them to find the hiding flounder.