Many people believe that spiders like to eat flies the most and when flies are not available, flying insects is the next thing they munch on. However, a new study has dispelled the belief by showing that spiders actually eat whatever is available in their environment. Now, it should not surprise you that large spiders living near water feed on small fish as well.

The findings of the study have been published in the journal PLOS ONE. The study was conducted by Zoologists from Switzerland and Australia, claiming that there are many spiders that go fishing.

The study has talked about five families of spiders catching small fish in the wild, said zoologist and spider expert, Martin Nyffeler from the University of Basel, Switzerland and Bradley Pusey from the University of Western Australia. Spiders do not rely on webs to hunt fish in the water; all they do is simply walk on the water surface. Some of them are even able to swim and dive. Powerful neurotoxins help the spiders kill fish several times of their size.

"The finding of such a large diversity of spiders engaging in fish predation is novel. Our evidence suggests that fish might be an occasional prey item of substantial nutritional importance", said Martin Nyffeler in a statement.

Spiders wait near the surface of the water to catch their prey. The wait for fish on the edge of a stream pays off for spiders. Their hind legs are anchored on a stone or plant and the spiders enter poison in the fish by biting them as they swim by.

North America, especially in the wetlands of Florida, is the place where most of the sightings of fishing spiders have been observed by the researchers.