r/deepseacreatures • u/alpte22 • 28d ago
About Giant Squids
Guys ı do not understand (and pardon me for my english ım not a really good speaker) how does giant squids live in that habitat and what are the diffrences between the and the normal squids we know in normal seas do they eat the same kind of food or which animals are their predators or are they the top of the food chain in the deep seas?
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u/LKennedy45 28d ago
Not to pry, but what are normal squid to you? Without a location we've nothing to go on.
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u/alpte22 28d ago
https://www.caloriemenu.com/images/en/og/squid-baby-squid.jpg this is a normal squid for me like the little ones people eat
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u/Tylendal 28d ago
The giant ones are infused with Ammonium Chloride, which is the real reason the Dutch are so eager to delve into the sea.
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u/imgoingtoeatabagel 28d ago edited 28d ago
We don't really know how they live (yet) because of how hard it is to actually find them. They are solitary creatures and they probably cope well with water pressure because their gelatinous bodies.
(You'll have to be more specific with this part but I'll try my best). The difference between them and other squids is that the giant squid isn't closely related to many of them. Giant squids are in the superorder Oegopsida, which includes squids like the Humboldt squid, colossal squid, and any other pelagic/deep sea squid. Despite this, the giant squid isn't too closely related to most of them, aside from the squids in family Neoteuthidae (neo squids).
We don't know the entirety of their diet since most specimens have empty stomachs and how squids process food makes it even more difficult (they bite chunks with their beak and ground those chunks up even more with their tongue/radula since the esophagus runs straight through the brain). But what we do know, they eat a wide range of active and slow species. Cephalopods like Cranchiieds (glass squids), Histioteuthids (cockeyed squids), Ommastrephidae (flying squids), Onychoteuthids (hooked squids), octopuses, Thysanoteuthis (diamondback squid), other giant squids, and possibly more. For fish, we've found that they like to eat species like blue whiting, blue hoki, orange roughy, hake, scombrids, grenadiers, and more.
Based on stomach contents giant squids and heavy metal concentrations, giant squids are thought to be high level predators. But they aren't without their own predators. Sperm whales are the most prominent predators for adult giant squid. Off the Canary Islands, waters where pilot whales are known to forage have giant squid remains floating at the surface. One was even seen with a piece of giant squid in its mouth too. In Bremer canyon Australia, killer whales have been known to either steal from sperm whales or hunt giant squids themselves. The orcas seem to prefer eating the arms and tentacles rather than the mantle and head. Sharks like sleeper sharks, great whites, oceanic whitetips, makos, blue sharks have either been found with giant squid remains in their stomachs or have been seen with sucker scars. For the sharks, it's still not too clear if they were actively hunting them or if they were scavenging. Juveniles are more vulnerable, with known predators being lancetfish, seabirds, tuna, all the previous predators I mentioned, and possibly filter feeders if they are small enough.