Editing Octopus (section)

===Feeding===
[[File:Veined Octopus - Amphioctopus Marginatus eating a Crab.jpg|thumb|left|[[Amphioctopus marginatus|Veined octopus]] eating a crab|alt=An octopus in an open seashell on a sandy surface, surrounding a small crab with the suckers on its arms]]

Octopuses are generally predatory and feed on prey such as [[crustacean]]s, [[Bivalvia|bivalves]], [[gastropod]]s, fish, and other cephalopods, including [[cannibalism|members of the same species]].<ref name=Hanlon>{{cite book |title=Cephalopod Behaviour |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last1=Hanlon |first1=R. T. |last2=Messenger |first2=J. B. |year=1998 |edition=1st|isbn=0-521-64583-2}}</ref>{{rp|47, 60}} Major items in the diet of the giant Pacific octopus include bivalves such as the cockle ''[[Clinocardium nuttallii]]'', clams and scallops and crustaceans such as [[crab]]s. It typically rejects [[Naticidae|moon snails]] because they are too large; [[limpet]]s, [[Crassadoma|rock scallops]], [[chiton]]s and [[abalone]], because they are too securely fixed to the rock.<ref name=Crowfootfeeding/> Small cirrate octopuses such as those of the genera ''[[Grimpoteuthis]]'' and ''[[Opisthoteuthis]]'' typically prey on polychaetes, [[copepod]]s, [[amphipod]]s and [[isopod]]s.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Martin A. |last2=Villanueva |first2=Roger |date=2006 |chapter=Taxonomy, ecology and behaviour of the cirrate octopods |title=Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review |volume=44 |pages=277–322 |doi=10.1201/9781420006391.ch6 |doi-broken-date=12 November 2024 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266220687 |access-date=5 February 2024 |isbn=978-0-8493-7044-1}}</ref>

Octopuses typically locate prey by feeling through their environment;<ref name=Mather/>{{rp|60}} some species hide and ambush their target.<ref name=Hanlon/>{{rp|54}} When prey tries to escape, the octopus jets after it.<ref name=Mather/>{{rp|61}} Octopuses may drill into the shells of crustaceans, bivalves and gastropods. It used to be thought that drilling was done by the radula, but it has now been shown that minute teeth at the tip of the salivary papilla are involved, and an enzyme in the toxic saliva is used to dissolve the calcium carbonate of the shell. This can take hours and once the shell is penetrated, the prey dies almost instantaneously. With crabs, tough-shelled species are more likely to be drilled, and soft-shelled crabs are torn apart.<ref name=Crowfoothandling>{{cite web |url=http://www.asnailsodyssey.com/LEARNABOUT/OCTOPUS/octoHand.php |title=Octopuses and Relatives: Prey handling and drilling |last=Carefoot |first=Thomas |work=A Snail's Odyssey |access-date=21 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606005247/http://www.asnailsodyssey.com/LEARNABOUT/OCTOPUS/octoHand.php |archive-date=6 June 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Some species have other modes of feeding. ''[[Grimpoteuthis]]'' either lacks or has a small radula and swallows prey whole.<ref name="marinebio"/> In the deep-sea genus ''[[Stauroteuthis]]'',  the suckers in most species have been altered into [[photophore]]s which are believed to fool prey by directing them to the mouth, making them one of the few [[bioluminescent]] octopuses.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/1542994 |pmid=28296499 |last1=Johnsen |first1=S. |first2=E. J. |last2=Balser |first3=E. C. |last3=Fisher |first4=E. A. |last4=Widder |year=1999 |url=http://www.biology.duke.edu/johnsenlab/pdfs/pubs/octopusbiolbull.pdf |title=Bioluminescence in the deep-sea cirrate octopod ''Stauroteuthis syrtensis'' Verrill (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) |journal=The Biological Bulletin |volume=197 |issue=1 |pages=26–39 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305114611/http://www.biology.duke.edu/johnsenlab/pdfs/pubs/octopusbiolbull.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2011  |jstor=1542994 }}</ref>