The Octopus: Mollusk

The Octopus
The Octopus: The word octopus means "eight feet." Octopuses are solitary, eight-armed
animals that live on the ocean floor. There are over 100 different species of octopuses. The
Giant Octopus is the biggest octopus. This huge mollusk is up to 23 ft (7 m) from arm tip to arm
tip, weighing up to 400 pounds (182 kg). The smallest is the Californian octopus, which is only
3/8
inch
(1
cm)
long.
Anatomy: An octopus has a soft body and eight arms. Each arm has two rows of suction cups.
If it loses an arm, it will eventually regrow another arm. It has blue blood. An octopus has an
eye on each side of its head and has very good eyesight. An octopus cannot hear.
Diet: Octopuses eat small crabs and scallops, plus some snails, fish,
turtles, crustaceans (like shrimp), and other octopuses. They catch prey with their arms, then kill
it by biting it with their tough beak, paralyzing the prey with a nerve poison, and softening the
flesh. They then suck out the flesh. Octopuses hunt mostly at night. Only the Australian Blueringed
octopus has
a
poison
strong
enough
to
kill
a
person.
Protection: Octopuses live in dens, spaces under rocks, crevices on the sea floor, or holes they
dig under large rocks. Octopuses pile rocks to block the front of their den. The den protects
them from predators (like moray eels) and provides a place to lay eggs and care for them (a
mother octopus doesn't eat during the entire 1 to 2 months she is caring for her eggs). In order
to escape predators, octopuses can squirt black ink into the water, allowing the octopus to
escape. Another defense that octopuses have is changing their skin color to blend into the
background, camouflaging themselves. The octopus swims by spewing water from its body, a
type of jet propulsion.
Interesting Octopus Facts for Kids

Octopuses are boneless creatures. They don't have a vertebral column, that is, they are invertebrates. The
beak (or the beak-like jaw) which is in the shape of a parrot beak, is the only hard structure in their body.
Due to this reason, their bodies are extremely flexible and they can squeeze through incredibly small spaces.
Their life span depends upon their type (species). It may vary from 6 months to a couple of years. The
larger ones live longer than those that are smaller in size. Male octopuses die within a few months of mating.
However, males of larger species live longer. Females of certain species eat the males after copulation.
Females die soon after their eggs hatch.
Octopuses are bottom dwellers. However, as they hatch from the eggs, the young ones swim to the surface.
After floating on the surface with the planktons for about a month, they swim back to the sea bed.
They may live in holes or crevices of rocks. Some of them make a protective area for themselves by piling
up rocks. The small Atlantic pygmy octopus is known to inhabit an empty clamshell.
An octopus is adept at swimming backwards. The muscular tube (a muscular funnel) on the body called
siphon promotes this action. It breathes through this tube. It sucks water into its body and by blasting water
through the siphon, it moves forward, backwards or sideways. Using the arms, it can even crawl along the
floor of the ocean.
Octopuses vary in size depending upon the species. While those found in tropical waters are small, those of
the colder seas are larger in size. The giant Pacific octopus is the largest amongst all the members of the
group and are known to grow as large as 23 feet. However, most species are smaller in size. Females are
usually smaller than the males, but the female blanket octopus is an exception to this rule. Being 100 times
larger than the male, it is 40,000 times heavier!
An interesting fact is that these sea creatures have three hearts. Two hearts pump blood through the gills
whereas the third one pumps blood through rest of the body. The color of its blood is blue.
These creatures hunt at night, and are stealth hunters. Their favorite food are crabs, mollusks and crayfish.
They change their color to merge with the surroundings and wait for the prey to pass by. As soon as the prey
is close within reach, they grab it with their long arms. Each tentacle has 240 suction cups, with the help of
which, the octopus grasps its prey. This means, an octopus has 1920 suction pumps! These creatures secrete a
nerve poison that stuns the prey. The beak is useful in delivering a nasty bite. Its venom is poisonous and in
some cases it can be fatal for human beings as well.
These creatures are preyed upon by sharks, dolphins, morays and conger eels. But, with the help of
pigment cells and muscles in their skin, they can immediately change their appearance. It is difficult for the
predators to find them as they match the colors, forms, and textures of their surroundings.
One of the interesting facts for children is that these invertebrates can be kept as pets. However, keeping
one as a pet is difficult as these creatures have been reported to have escaped from supposedly secure tanks
due to their intelligence and flexible bodies.
These eight legged creatures have highly developed sense of sight that helps them to hunt efficiently in the
low light levels of the deep waters. They also have an excellent sense of touch. They have sensory receptors
at the bottom of their suckers that enable them to "taste" whatever they touch. They are, however, deaf.
A female octopus lays up to 150,000 eggs in two weeks! The mother protects the eggs from the predators
for the entire two months. After two months, as the eggs hatch, the babies are blown out of the den by the
mother. The mother never leaves the place in search of food and usually dies from starvation.
Their first instinct, when threatened, is to flee. Studies show that an octopus turns white when it is scared.
They are known to eject a cloud of black ink when attacked by a predator. Sometimes, they may also shed an
arm to escape a predator. The lost arm regrows in some time.

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The Octopus

Interesting Octopus Facts for Kids

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