Feeding Habits
Throughout their existance, blobfish seem to have found that due to the lack of food on the ocean floor, saving as much energy as possible is the best method of existance. Thus, rather than searching for food, they seem to stay still and wait for anything they can eat to venture near them. Due to their minimal bones and gelatinous bodies, they are able to float in place and stay completely still, waiting for sea pens, small crustaceans or even gastropod molluscs to come their way. In desperate times, they even eat "marine snow", a type of organic matter that falls from upper waters to the deep ocean floor.
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Sea PensSea Pens are a type of small, marine animal, which attaches itself to the ocean floor with what is called a "peduncle." It then waits for plankton to flow its way. These aren't extremely common in the deep ocean where blobfish arise, but rather they sink there ever so often when they are uprooted by strong currents in the waters above. |
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CrustaceansCrustaceans include many species of marine animals, such as shrimp, crayfish, crabs, krill and even barnacles, as well as many others. Blobfish typically focus on small crabs on the ocean floor, but will eat any type of crustacean that they can fit in their mouth. |
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GastropodsThe name gastropods refers to the family of snails and slugs. They seem to have adapted to almost any kind of existance on earth, and that includes living on the ocean floor. Typically blobfish may accidentally find these creatures as the gastropods are searching for "marine snow" on the ocean floor. |
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Marine SnowMarine snow, also referred to as "ocean dandruff" by some, is the constant shower of organic material falling from the upper waters, into the deep ocean. It is made up of tiny plankton, fecal matter, dead animals, and protists. Interestingly enough, they often sink for weeks before reaching the ocean floor. They are a major source of food for bottom dwelling ocean creatures, and that includes blobfish. |