Prey Capture, Ingestion, and Digestion Dynamics of Octopus vulgaris Paralarvae Fed Live Zooplankton.

ABSTRACT: Octopus vulgaris is a species of great interest in research areas such as neurobiology, ethology, and ecology but also a candidate species for aquaculture as a food resource and for alleviating the fishing pressure on its wild populations. This study aimed to characterize the predatory behavior of O. vulgaris paralarvae and to quantify their digestive activity. Those processes were affordable using the video-recording analysis of 3 days post-hatching (dph), mantle-transparent paralarvae feeding on 18 types of live zooplanktonic prey. We show for the first time in a live cephalopod that octopus paralarvae attack, immobilize, drill, and ingest live cladocerans and copepods with 100% efficiency, which decreases dramatically to 60% on decapod prey (Pisidia longicornis). Th

SUBMITTER: Nande M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5562678 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature