Nutrition
Larva, Juvenile, and Adult Stage
The
Larva is the first stage of development after being hatched
for a graceful decorator crab. At this stage they are
extrememly small and are still developing into their adult
form. Their main source of food is tiny plankton.
They then move into the zoea stage. The Oregonia
gracilis still mainly eats plankton and other small
organisms. By this point they are getting stronger and
able to rip apart some organisms. Once they have
reached adult stage they are have full grown pinches and
jaws rip food apart and are fully developed so there body
can digest more types of organisms. Graceful decorator
crabs are able to eat anything from plankton to other
smaller crabs from their same species. These crabs are
classified in the omnivore category because once they become
adult crabs they will eat different types of plants, algae,
and animals. Two examples that related to the algae
that is eaten by the crab is
green algae
and
blue-green algae.
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will demonstrate the
graceful decorator crab eating.
Digestion
Oregonia gracilis use their pinchers
(chelipeds) to obtain food and put
into their mouth. They can only open their
mouths so much because of their exoskeleton, which is why
the pinchers play such an important role in ripping the prey
into small enough pieces to fit into the crabs’ mouth.
Once they food particle is about to entered the mouth
it will go through the graceful decorators crabs
maxillipeds. Maxillipeds
cover the entire mouth and tare through the food even more
to make it smaller and smaller before entering the mouth and
jaws. The food
then goes through the esophagus entering the stomach where
it gets broken down by the bristles in it.
The next phase is for the food to leave the stomach
and digestive juices are released which then the food will
digest and absorbed.
The leftover food is sent to the hindgut where it
will completely be digested and absorbed.