Walking octopi!

[ppnl]

Most octopus have a 6 - 18 month lifespan. The longest-lived ones are the giant pacific octopus, which live about 5 years. (generally speaking, the colder the water they live in, the longer they live) With the amount of cunning and inteligence exibited by a year old octopus, it's a good thing they don't live longer or we may not have made it to the top of the food chain.

I know the females die after laying eggs. But what about the males?

 

[Just thinking]

I know the females die after laying eggs. But what about the males?

I think they would die in the process of laying eggs.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Given that the beasts do seem to be quite smart and that their lives are so short, either they must come with a lot of pre-wired behaviour, or they must be very quick learners.

 

[Just thinking]

... either they must come with a lot of pre-wired behaviour, or they must be very quick learners.

And just who taught them how to walk?

 

[AK-Dave]

I know the females die after laying eggs. But what about the males?

Actually, the females usually take care of the eggs until they hatch. The males die about the same time as the females. They pretty much have a pre-programmed lifespan. Some marine animals do not have an old age, and will live until they are killed by something. I believe chitons are an example of this.

 

[Kaylee]

Very intelligent creatures, especially considering that they never have a chance to learn anything from their parents. I would guess almost everything they need to know to survive must come pre-wired.

http://www.npca.org/marine_and_coastal/marine_wildlife/octopus.asp

The giant Pacific octopus is an intelligent creature. In laboratory tests and aquariums, it has been able to solve mazes very quickly, unscrew jar lids to retrieve food inside the jar, and even mimic another octopus in a different tank.

And this agrees with what others have posted:

Octopuses generally do not live more than one or two years. The giant Pacific octopus lives longer than most octopus species. Males live about 4 years and females about 3.5 years. They usually die after breeding.

http://www.marinelab.sarasota.fl.us/OCTOPI.HTM

Octopuses have the most complex brain of the invertebrates (animals with out backbones). They have long term and short-term memories as do vertebrates. Octopuses learn to solve problems by trial-and-error and experience. Once the problem is solved, octopuses remember and are able to solve it and similar problems repeatedly.

Octopuses sense of touch is acute in it's suckers. The rim of the cups are particularly sensitive. A blindfolded octopus can differentiate between objects of various shapes and sizes as well as a sighted octopus.

Octopuses have highly complex eyes which compare to human visual acuity. Focusing is done by moving the lens in and out rather than by changing its shape as the human eye dose.

Dangerous critters too:

Many octopuses produce venomous secretions. This venom is fatal to their favorite prey - crabs and lobsters. The tiny Blue Ringed Octopus in Australia is deadly to humans. It's tiny beak can even penetrate a SCUBA diver's wet suit!

and if it's not careful it can poison itself also. (That one I can't figure out. Why wouldn't evolution have evolved an octopus immune to it's own ink? That is really strange…)

When threatened, octopuses will often try to escape by releasing a cloud of purple-black ink to confuse the enemy. It's body will change color, release an ink cloud and jet away to safety. Several blotches of ink can be released before the ink sac is empty. The ink is toxic to an octopus in a confined space such as in a cave with little water current or in captivity. If the octopus can not escape the ink (or water is not changed quickly when held in an aquarium), the octopus will become ill or perhaps die.

but they have a tough life from the very first day:

Most females will not eat after laying eggs and die soon after her eggs have hatched. Some baby octopuses, like Octopus vulgaris, are carried about in water currents for about a month before they settle to the bottom. Other baby octopuses, like the large egged Octopus joubini, look like miniature adults and immediately start living their life on the bottom. Only one or two out of 200,000 eggs will survive to become adult.

(Start of Shameless Plug For Another Thread ) Hmm, I bet the survivors would be considered self-aware ... ( End of Shameless Plug )

 

[Bruce]

I'd hate to break it to you, but octopi have been walking on two legs for years. Here is a picture of an octopus that researchers have affectionately dubbed "Henry".

 

[AK-Dave]

[/B]
Dangerous critters too:
[/B]

The blue ring octopus has the same neurotoxin - TTX, a sodium channel blocker - as that puffer fish that kills you if you eat the wrong parts. It is not actually produced by the octopus or puffer fish, but by a symbiotic bacteria that lives in them.

and if it's not careful it can poison itself also. (That one I can't figure out. Why wouldn't evolution have evolved an octopus immune to it's own ink? That is really strange…)

The ink does not poison the octopus, it suffocates it. It coats its gills and prevents oxygen transfer. It is usually only a problem if the octopus is in a fish tank or something, as the ink can't dissipate. This is why people who keep pet octopus need good filtration on their fish tanks.

 

[Kaylee]

The blue ring octopus has the same neurotoxin - TTX, a sodium channel blocker - as that puffer fish that kills you if you eat the wrong parts. It is not actually produced by the octopus or puffer fish, but by a symbiotic bacteria that lives in them.

Looks like I clicked on the wrong web site. Thanks Dave.

The ink does not poison the octopus, it suffocates it. It coats its gills and prevents oxygen transfer. It is usually only a problem if the octopus is in a fish tank or something, as the ink can't dissipate. This is why people who keep pet octopus need good filtration on their fish tanks.

Now that makes more sense, but still begs the question -- why didn't evolution produce an octopus with ink proof gills?

Anyway, looks like an octopus of a non-poisonous variety would be a cool pet. I'd consider it -- but no houseplant has ever survived my care.

Shera


Extras -- As I have a compulsion to find related links on the net -- here they are along with some cut and pastes for the other anally inclined.

Re TTX:
http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/bluering2.html

TTX is found not only in blue-rings and many fishes in the family Tetraodontidae (hence the name tetrodotoxin), but also in several other groups of animals including California newts (genus Taricha), central American harlequin frogs (genus Atelopus), as well as a scattering of invertebrates including a South American tunicate (sea squirt), a sea star, several snails, some xanthid crabs, a horseshoe crab, two ribbon worms, some arrow worms, and a flatworm. It was a mystery why such a diversity of unrelated organisms would all evolve the same toxin, until it was recently discovered that bacteria associated with many of these animals actually produce TTX. This is the case in blue-ringed octopuses. Their salivary glands harbor dense colonies of TTX-producing bacteria. The blue-rings have evolved a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria, providing them ideal living conditions while using the toxin they produce to subdue prey and as part of their highly advertised defense.


There are other poisonous octopuses:
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~chuffard/index_files/Things to know before you buy an octopus.htm

Relatives of Octopus aculeatus have a poison in their bodies that’s similar to TTX, the poison in blue-ring venom (Robertson et al. 2004 Toxicon 44: 765).


A thread on ink in a forum for people interested in octopuses:
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6

 

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Now that makes more sense, but still begs the question -- why didn't evolution produce an octopus with ink proof gills?

I'm going to guess because they haven't lived in small glass tanks for millions of years; they don't need them in the wild. Or maybe they can't, gills are semi permeable membrane tubing where oxygen goes through by osmosis to the blood inside the tubing. If something coats them to where gas can't pass then they can't breath. A similar question to this would be why haven't babies evolved an immunity to plastic bags and buckets of water?

 

[Kaylee]

I'm going to guess because they haven't lived in small glass tanks for millions of years; they don't need them in the wild.

That sounds like a good guess. One of the web sites I cut and pasted from said that some octopuses could get into trouble if they were stuck in a small cave while using their ink -- but as AK-Dave showed with his last post, not all of the web sites I found had the best quality information. So perhaps most octopuses could escape from a cave before they ran into trouble from their own ink.

A similar question to this would be why haven't babies evolved an immunity to plastic bags and buckets of water?

Well, I think that would be a more comparable question if babies produced their own plastic bags and buckets of water, the same way that octopuses produce their own ink.

But I agree, an octopus in the wild and out in the open (not a small cave) probably would have no problems from his ink.

 

[toddjh]

That sounds like a good guess. One of the web sites I cut and pasted from said that some octopuses could get into trouble if they were stuck in a small cave while using their ink -- but as AK-Dave showed with his last post, not all of the web sites I found had the best quality information. So perhaps most octopuses could escape from a cave before they ran into trouble from their own ink.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that octopuses use their ink for cover to buy them time to escape a threat. In that case, they'd probably get away from the ink before it had a chance to affect them.

Well, I think that would be a more comparable question if babies produced their own plastic bags and buckets of water, the same way that octopuses produce their own ink.

Babies produce their own carbon dioxide. The lack of airtight containers that can fit over a baby's head in the wild is analogous to the fact that an octopus's natural environment doesn't provide a lot of opportunities for them to sit in their own ink for long.

Jeremy

 

[Kaylee]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that octopuses use their ink for cover to buy them time to escape a threat. In that case, they'd probably get away from the ink before it had a chance to affect them.



Babies produce their own carbon dioxide. The lack of airtight containers that can fit over a baby's head in the wild is analogous to the fact that an octopus's natural environment doesn't provide a lot of opportunities for them to sit in their own ink for long.

Jeremy

Caves? As I said, one website I clicked on said that an octupus could get into trouble if it got stuck in a cave while using their ink for cover.I don't know if the person who put that website toghether knew what he was talking about. Maybe not.
I seem to vaguely recall octopuses as creatures that prefer to hide, but I really don't know if getting stuck in caves is an issue for them.

 

[DaChew]

Personally, I"m looking forward to our future octopoid overlords.

Oh, don't you worry. We knew this would happen.

Come on you ink shooting bastards. Your mother was a daddy longlegs. Detroit's ready for you. BRING IT!

That's how we roll up on your kind.