The shad are omnivorous, and they begin to eat zooplankton, such as rotifers, copepods and small cladocera, four days after hatching. After hatching 10 day, the body length was more than 1.4 cm, and besides eating zooplankton, it began to eat phytoplankton. After that, more and more phytoplankton were eaten, until about 40 days after hatching, when the body length was more than 4 cm, phytoplankton was mainly eaten. At the same time, Shade likes to lick and scrape algae that grow on the surface of underwater soil or rocks. In addition, a small amount of zooplankton and organic debris were swallowed. In the case of pond culture, you can eat rice bran, peanut bran and other feeds.
The shad is a warm-water fish with a strong appetite at the temperature of 15℃ to 30℃. When the water temperature is higher than 3 1℃, the appetite decreases. When the water temperature is lower than 14℃, it will gather in the deep water area with less activity. Stop eating when the water temperature is lower than 13℃. When it is below 7℃, it cannot survive. Because of the poor cold resistance of shad, shad are usually placed in a deep pool sheltered from the wind and sun when wintering in the Pearl River Delta pond, and sometimes additional cold protection measures are needed.