The Seablog

5 favourite cephalopods: the one with all of them.

I quite like doing strings of themed posts like that. 

Cephalopods are just beautiful, amazing & incredibly intelligent animals. Anyways, here they are, if anyones interested (top to bottom, left to right, click through for orignal post):

1. Dosidicus gigas, The Humboldt Squid. Or in spanish, Diablo Rojo (Red Devil)

2. Tremoctopus, the Blanket Octopus

3. Enteroctopus Dofleini, The Giant Pacific Octopus

4. Todarodes pacificus, Japanese Flying Squid

5. Wunderpus photogenicus, The Wonderpus

5 Favourite Cephalopods, No. 4:

The Blanket Octopus, Tremoctopus is not actually a single species but a genus of 4 different species: Tremoctopus gelatus, robsoni, gracilis & violaceus, with T. violaceus being the most common one. 

Blanket Octopus females may grow as large as 2 meters, while males achieve a measly 5-6 cm. They’re also immune to the Man o’ Wars poison, and while they don’t predate on it, young octopus may rip off tentacles and use them for defence. Beautiful thing.

5 favourite Cephalopods, number 3:

Of cephalopods (and aquatic animals), there is one who’s beauty and presence can’t be denied: Enteroctopus dofleini, The Giant Pacific Octopus. Weighing in at between 60-70 kg and with an impressive length of up to 4 meters, it is the largest of the octopus (sharing the title with the 7-armed octopus). It is an incredibly intelligent creature as well, octopus is one of the few creatures which you are not allowed to perform surgery on without anaesthesia. 

Internetvibes asked for Octopus. These are some of my favourite creatures of all times, so i think im gonna do a top 5 countdown of my favourite over the next few days. To start off, the Wonderpus, Wunderpus photogenicus. Often mistaken for a Mimic Octopus, this colourful, elusive octopus is found around the Phillipines. If nothing else, you’ve at least got to love it for its name. 

What happens when a bird tries to eat an octopus? this does.

Volcanoctopus hydrothermalis. Based on its name, you might have figured out that its found around hydrothermal vents, where it feeds on crabs and amphipods. Interestingly, only males have ever been observed, and the one time one was observed mating it turned out it was with a male from a different species.

An Octopus stole this guys camera while diving. The result is probably the best thing i have ever seen. They’re such amazing creatures..

This is a Paper Nautilus, or Argonauta is a genus containing 7 species. Pretty cool looking things. Females can grow up to 10 cms and create these shells which can grow up to 35 cms, while males are only around about 2 cms and do not secrete the shells. 

The Mimic Octopus. Pretty little thing. Does exactly what name says.

When you think of really smart marine animals, most people would probably mention dolphins (which have an intelligence thats almost above or at a chimps) and orca. 

But i think several cephalopods are underrepresented. Squid, Cuttlefish, and Octopus are all incredibly smart. Octopus have been seen to open containers with screw caps, have shown to have quite a good short and long term memory (through maze solving and there have even been reports of octopus boarding fishing boats and eating crab catches.

As for squid, an excellent example is the humboldt squid, I’ve talked about this before, but the way they hunt is one of the only example of organised hunting and communication in invertebrates. 

Cuttlefish are also highly intelligent, and in mating processes they have been shown to imitate female behaviour to avoid confrontation by larger male cuttlefish.