How does an octopus eat?
Cephalopods are marine creatures that include octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish.
Their distinctive feature is their flexible bodies that allow them to fit into unusually shaped or small spaces.
Cephalopods make up the class of mollusks with about 800 living species.
All have eight sucker-equipped arms and two longer tentacles that they use for capturing prey.
They also use them for gathering information about their surroundings using touch receptors called cephalic lobes.
What Are Octopuses?
The octopus is a cephalopod without a shell and has the largest brain-to-body ratio of any invertebrate.
The octopus is a carnivore with an appetite for fish, crabs, lobsters, clams, and snails.
They are widespread throughout the world’s oceans.
However, the octopus prefers the more temperate coastal waters with plentiful crevices that it can hide in.
An octopus is a solitary animal that does not travel in groups.
It lives alone because the only time it eats is when it hunts.
This means that if an octopus can eat another one of its kind then it would compete for food.
What is an Octopus’ Eating Habits?
Before an octopus eats, it turns its body into a boneless mass so it can enter very small areas.
Then, it pours digestive juices onto its food which are about ten times stronger than stomach acid.
After the muscles go limp, the prey is turned around in the octopus’ mouth until it can be moved into the throat and swallowed.
The food is then passed through a long esophagus to the crop, where it is stored until it can pass into the gizzard.
In there, sharp pieces of shell grind against one another, breaking up the shells and turning them into sand that is shot out through a narrow tube called an exhaust siphon.
Then the octopus eats as much as it wants and leaves the rest of the food to settle before eating more.
