Herbivory in Cephalopods??

Octopon

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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:
 
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!
 
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).
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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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!).
 
Steve O'Shea;151027 said:
(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. :/
 
Perhaps you should walk your octopus or squid every day, so it can chew its cud, barf, and not soil the tank
 

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