Food preference, consumption and feeding behavior of scavenging gastropod Babylonina spirata (Neogastropoda, Buccinidae)

Abstract

The present study of food preference, consumption rate, time spent on food and the perception distance of Babylonia spirata was made with various food organisms like Meretrix meretrix, Perna viridis, Crassostrea madmsensis, Loligo sp., Penaeus indicus, Oratosquilla sp. and Portunus pelagicus as feed. Among the various food offered, B. spirata fed on oyster (1.22 g/day) and less on crab (0.05 g/day). Larger snails spent 7.2 min to consume 2 g of food, smaller snails took as much as 13.4 min to consume the same quantity. The snails took less time to locate oyster meat (7.2 min) and more time to locate crab meat.