This data was generated from a study in which five experiments were conducted that tested whether and how dissolved chemicals might assist food recognition in two filter-feeding fishes, the silver (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and the bighead carp (H. nobilis). The buccal-pharngeal pumping (BPP), a behavior in which fish pump water into their buccal cavities, was observed in both silver and bighead carps after exposure to a variety of food filtrates and mixtures. In addition, occlusion experiments to determine if the olfactory sense has a very important, but not exclusive, role in bigheaded carp feeding behaviors were conducted.