Milk Fish Freshwater or Saltwater

Milk fish freshwater or saltwater maybe you curiously ask about it since you do not know whether the silvery fish can live in either one or even both of them. First thing first, you should learn about milk fish facts. Milkfish is often called as bangus in Philippines and bandeng in Indonesia. This is a small fish that mostly found not more than 1 m in size, although it can grow up to 1.8 m. The fish does not have tooth but they have many small bones which is hard to be removed because the bones are too numerous. However the nicest thing about milk fish is the taste that not too strong but not to mildly either, it is perfect and best choice to have for many recipes.

Is milk fish freshwater or saltwater?

Milkfish is the only member of Chanidae family. They like to swim around in tropical waters and found generally at Indian Ocean and across Pacific Ocean. Milkfish is a very attractive fish since it has torpedo shaped form with silvery color on the side part, blue green above, while the bottom is white color. They have big eyes which covered with a layer of gelatinous tissue which is looks like mullet appearance. Some people, however, often describe the fish as a toothless fish with primitive appearance and deep fork tail.

Now, to answer whether milk fish freshwater or saltwater marine species then young milkfish is like to live in tropical water and they usually found in freshwaters rivers or brackish, wetlands, and swamps while mature or adults like to swim in ocean water or saltwater. So, milk fish can live in both freshwater and saltwater. Adult milkfish bangus can be encountered coastal areas such as coral reefs and offshore islands.

Where there is abundant plankton then you can find a large school of milk fish since they are toothless, they like to feed on small species including plankton. The fish will form a group of milkfish and open their mouth wide to catch the plankton while trapping them so they can be easily captured by the mouth opening.

Milkfish is matured when they reach 5 years of age, but they will spawn in salt water only. The spawning process mostly occurs during warm season and the process taking time mostly at night. Milkfish farming has been done for years at least 4 to 6 centuries or around 800 years ago in many countries especially South East Asia such as Philippines and Indonesia. Both of the countries are the major producers of milkfish and they sold many milkfish bangus or bandeng seafood products worldwide. They harvest the fish both from the ocean as wildlife catch milkfish or from farm fishing and then distributed plus exported the fish around the world.

Most of freshwater fish cannot migrate to saltwater fish if the salinity level is too high. But, the case with milkfish is on different side since young milk fish bangus generally found in freshwater while adults milkfish bangus mostly found in salt water or the ocean. So, they likely can live in both waters at certain areas. They migrating from one place to another especially when the seasons are changed from warm to colder months. They will migrate to find warmer place to swim around.

Milk fish freshwater or saltwater both are caught to produce important seafood product in fishing industry. They are sold as fresh, frozen, fillets, steaks, smoked, and canned products. For whole round fish, they are offered as headed gutted and tail-off or headed and gutted with the tail still on. People can also buy boneless and skinless milk fish in frozen state and thanks to today’s technologies, the fish can be frozen right after caught.

If you have an access for fresh milkfish then you can buy fresh bangus, but most of people does not that privilege, therefore they like to buy frozen fish bangus at grocery stores because it is available every day and they are abundant to be purchased. Milk fish can be cooked in various ways such as pan fried, baked, broiled, grilled, steamed, smoked, and so on. However, in both Philippines and Indonesia, most of the homeowners prefer to have it pan fried since it can brings the milk fish freshwater or salt water taste in better state.