Herbivory in Cephalopods??

[Octopon]

I have a question I've been pondering for, literally, YEARS and have been unable to find an answer for. I was wondering if anyone knew if there were any species of Cephalopods whose diets consisted to any degree of non-Animal or Vegetative material. Now, I highly doubt there is any such thing as an Herbivorous Cephalopod (though I would be delighted to discover this!), but I wonder if there might be some specy (I have no idea if 'specy' is linguistically correct in any way or not, but it's a convention I've used for the singular of 'species' for years now) out there that ingests Macroalgae or perhaps even sessile Organisms like Cnidarians or something. Anyone have a clue? :hmm:

[Architeuthoceras]

I dont know about herbivory :sad:

But Species is singular and plural

[Mara]

I don´t Know and don´t read nothing about the herbivory in cephalopods...but do you need to see what kind of the food that animals eating. Because, could be a different part of the body's animals living with this cephalopod, maybe!

[Steve O'Shea]

There is a possibility that coelenterates comprise part of the prey in Haliphron atlanticus (but not 'vegetarian' as far as I know - I would be extremely surprised if agae were ingested unless accidentally; see the thread on Dosidicus defrosting by Heather in this forum).

[Octopon]

I read the thread by Heather - extraordinarily interesting, but I'm confused by your comments on the thread. How would kelp get into the stomachs of dead Squid? Or am I misunderstanding? Do they attack and ingest it while they're dying or something? And what do you think that feather's all about? Same? You think it went for a bird and got a feather instead? o_O

[bathypol]

Around Vancouver Island where Heather's squid are from, there are a lot of kelp forests. So the kelp may have been ingested while the squid was eating a prey item that got caught in it. I'm not sure though. Just a guess, but all the stomachs I have looked at, there are no signs of vegetation....goo yes, vegetation no.

[Heather Braid]

I believe that the Humboldt squid from the strandings that I looked at were actually ingesting kelp and seaweed on purpose. I can't be sure, but several stomachs contained plant material. The last squid that I dissected had 36 grams of plant matter in his stomach, part of a fish, two rocks, and some sand. With that much seaweed it seemed to me that it must have been intentional, but I could be wrong. There was undigested plant matter in the intestine, so I don't think they have the ability to digest it.

[DWhatley]

Heather, could you tell if the intestines were being blocked by the plant matter? Was any of it Kelp?

[Tintenfisch]

Some weird stuff has been found in Architeuthis stomachs as well - see attached synopsis from the Intro of Bolstad & O'Shea (2004). I'm pretty sure the sand, stones and probably seaweeds are all accidental ingestion, although the higher weight you found in Dosidicus is interesting, Heather.

Bolstad, K.S.; O’Shea, S. 2004. Gut contents of a giant squid Architeuthis dux (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida) from New Zealand waters. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 31: 15–21.

[Teuthman]

Are cephalopods even capable of digesting plant material? I have always heard and read that they are strictly carnivorous.

[Steve O'Shea]

That would be my understanding too, but I never cease to be amazed these days. I would remain inclined to think that ingestion of algal material was accidental, but I would not go as far as to say they'd never do it deliberately (my cats eat grass, I believe, when they've got gastric 'issues;' having said this, my cats have issues!).

[DWhatley]

ALL cats have issues, that's what makes them cats.

[Tintenfisch]

(my cats eat grass, I believe, when they've got gastric 'issues'

Yes, because it makes them barf! We had a 'bulimic' dog that used to do this too - learned to keep her outside after she'd been grazing. :/

[Steve O'Shea]

Perhaps you should walk your octopus or squid every day, so it can chew its cud, barf, and not soil the tank

[DWhatley]

That would reduce water changes but what would the neighbors think?

[ceph]

CephBase had 1000's of predation records. Among them was a single record of algae in a ceph's stomach. The papers authors and I both believe that this was an anomaly. As far as I know, all cephs are predators with most preferring live prey.

[Jean]

I'd agree, we've had times when we've had to let the octopus go hungry for a few days (ran out of crabs and bad weather so couldn't get the boats out) NOT a good scenario, anyway our octopus wouldn't touch fish fillets never mind the seaweed in the tank!

[snowmaker]

I don't like to wander off topic frequently, but since the door has already been opened...
My late Lab / Mutt loved veggies. She would steal carrots right out of a neighbors garden (to his amusement, not anger) and oddly, loved Romaine lettuce, but wouldn't touch Iceberg. Skinned apples, oranges and grapes (only if I peeled them) were liked as well - note that these skins are supposedly not good for canines - the pectin ya know...

I have often wondered why some aquarists will feed their wet-pets terrestrial foods like spinach for herbivorous fishes and garlic, of all things.

[esquid]

I have often wondered why some aquarists will feed their wet-pets terrestrial foods like spinach for herbivorous fishes and garlic, of all things.
You might as well be asking why people top off at gas stations

[Jean]

And canids are often quite omniverous, wolves etc in the wild will eat berries etc, my dogs also love carrots, apples, bananas and also grapes (although they never get those as according to our vet the whole grape is toxic!). Seamus my spaniel LOVES raspberries off the cane, it's so funny to watch him curl up his lips so he doesn't get prickled and nip off the berries! BUT I've never seen this behaviour (plant eating) in cephs, I think their protein based metabolism just can't deal with the cellulose, and they just don't seem to recognise algae a potential food source (unlike my garbage guts dog!)

[DWhatley]

Extending the thinking a bit, domestic animals will eat grass even though it does not digest when their stomachs are off ...

And extending the off topic tangent comparing with our better understood dogs, an Irish Wolfhound will eat fruit from trees (as well as any offered) as a breed, not just an individual animal. We give ours small amounts thinking there is a biologic need for something in the fruit that other dogs don't share (the Newfie won't touch fruit).

[CaptFish]

My dog hates fruit and veggies! If you give him a plate of leftovers he will polish the plate and leave all the veggies piled on the side. The only non meat items he likes that I know of are Cheez-its and Popsicles he loves them! I gave him a bit of beef stew the other night and he ate all the gravy and meat even licked the gravy off the veggies but still left them all neatly piled to the side.

[snowmaker]

Whitney use to beg when I was picking blackberries so I taught her to pick her own. She picked it up in less than a minute and all of the sudden, I had competition - at least for the lower two feet.

[DWhatley]

We might have to see what Bailey (Irish Wolfhound) will do with blackberries but it would not be only the lower 2' that would be easily accessable.