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Mouth-by-mouth banquet

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The mouth-by-mouth banquet is a feeding apparatus that supplies different food portions to the mouths of a million-legged carpet. Its 320 adjustable positions can be aligned with the four staggered mouth rows of an adult whose feeding edge has been mapped. Mouth counts vary between adults, and each animal's feeding map guides the alignment.

A broad, flat olive-grey carpet sea cucumber rests in a seawater tank with adjustable banks of fine feeding outlets beneath its leading edge. Separate golden, green and clear reservoirs supply the apparatus.
The mouth-by-mouth banquet brings separate food supplies beneath the carpet’s broad feeding edge. Adjustable outlet banks align with the mouths while a camera records local feeding.

Each outlet presents material to one small crown of feeding tentacles. Neighbouring mouths can receive diatoms, softened kelp or plain seawater during the same sitting. Watching which crowns gather food shows how feeding varies along the edge while the animal remains in place. A mouth may stop gathering even as those beside it continue.

Food particles of different colours are offered at selected positions and followed through the animal's gut branches. Each mouth opens into a local branch, which joins collectors shared with other parts of the body. The particles help show where material from separate mouths begins to mix. The apparatus is used to examine multiple-mouth feeding within a single digestive network.

The apparatus was adapted for the Valparaíso Festival of One, an annual public event begun in 2022. One carpet is the dining guest; teams prepare separate miniature menus for hundreds of its mouths while aquarists control portion sizes and a dry gallery accommodates spectators. Each year's programme includes demonstrations of the shared digestive network. Laboratory work also uses the million-foot treadmill, which presents a returning food-coated floor while observers study the animal's walking sole.

The Punta Laja Foot Registry keeps a persistent record for each foot of a reference carpet. Its annual censuses complement the banquet’s feeding studies by following changes in the same animal’s walking surface.

See also

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