The availability of microorganisms attached to sediment particles as food for Hydrobia ventrosa Montagu (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia).

The deposit-feeding prosobranch Hydrobia ventrosa Montagu feeds most rapidly upon sediment particles that pass through a 10 μm sieve. Ingestion rate decreases with particles 80-125 μm, then increases with larger particles, which are fed upon by scraping fine material from their surfaces. Hydrobia is capable of digesting diatoms and bacteria from sediment particles, but with generally lower efficiencies than reported when fed pure cultures. Digestion of microorganisms appears to be constrained by ability of the snail to detach cells from sediment particles; only those cells detached from sediment seem to be available for digestion. In contrast, the amphipod Corophium volutator is capable of utilizing most of the diatoms not digested by Hydrobia. For a given sediment, a constant number of microorganisms appear to be safe from digestion by H. ventrosa, and bacteria and microalgae over this amount constitutes the available food.