Just as a baby needs liquids and soft foods, little animals have the same concerns. Researchers at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale are processing Asian carp into a kind of baby food for baby fish.
Aquaculture professor Karolina Kwasek is behind this method to more efficiently feed baby perch, which cannot digest regular fish food.
“We predominantly work with fish in their early development of stages,” says Kwasek, “so right after hatching, when they are still in a form of larvae. Growing fish larvae in captivity can be very challenging; they don’t have a fully differentiated digestive tract, so they are unable to utilize dry or pellet feed as adult fish.”
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources this year re-branded Asian carp as “copi” to make it sound more tasty. Kwasek, who is from Poland, can vouch for its viability as a foodstuff, saying it’s a traditional Christmas dish in her homeland.