by Barry Brown | Jun 22, 2017 | Cephalopods, Reef, Science
Good morning, sorry about the text this morning, I’m having a weird formatting issue making me hate Word Press even more at this point.. I have four beautiful deep-sea octopus for you this morning all found in the Caribbean, many found living in discarded bottles and all found by the Smithsonian Institution and Substation Curacao. Some of these are tiny and I guess they would have to be if they were living inside an bottle. Scientists from the Smithsonian now believe that these small octopus grab little hermit crabs and carry them back to their private bottle homes were they can eat without being disturbed that is unless a 2.5 million dollar submersible happens to pass by. Also many of these amazing creatures were found at or around the 850 foot mark so many of these you see here could be new species, we will again have to wait and see what the Smithsonian scientists come up with as far as DNA goes. I am running late for a long mtb ride, talk to again soon… Barry NEWER POST: by xeniaforever | Jun 17, 2017 | Cephalopods
Cephalopod Week has just kicked off with this new video, featuring Richard Ross, his secret home aquarium/lab, and some great footage and information about breeding octopuses - specifically, octopus chierchiae, the lesser Pacific striped octopus. by Admin | Jun 12, 2017 | Cephalopods, Too Cute
I came across this little fellow on a Maldives night dive and thought I’d share. The question is though: is it a squid or a cuttle? I need your... by Admin | Feb 23, 2017 | Cephalopods, Science
A few years ago, when diving in the South Pacific, I had the pleasure of visiting a dive center that had set up a project to try to limit the damage that was being done by Crown-of-Thorns sea stars. I assumed that they would be using the traditional method of spearing... by Barry Brown | Aug 27, 2016 | Cephalopods, Corals, Reef, Science
Hi gang, I have an extra beautiful Caribbean reef squid clinging to a colony of mountainous star coral for you all today that I found late at night on our house reef. The Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) is a coral reef marine animal. It has eight long arms that vary in length and diameter. The mantle is large and chunky in comparison (up to 60 cm long). This species is difficult to describe because it changes color and texture to blend into its surroundings, using specialised skin cells known as chromatophores. by Rich Ross | Mar 30, 2016 | Cephalopods, Science
LPSO covered in the print version of National Geographic, April 2016 edition. Online version here: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/04/basic-instincts-octopus-mating/ Text: By Patricia Edmonds This story ran in the April 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine. In most octopus species it’s customary after sex for the female to make a meal—of her partner. To avoid being eaten, the male typically “jumps on top of the female, they mate in a position where he’s as far from her mouth as possible, and when they’re done, the male runs away,” says marine biologist Richard Ross of the California Academy of Sciences. That mating behavior was such accepted science that in 1982, when Panamanian marine biologist Arcadio Rodaniche reported finding an octopus that mated beak to beak and cohabited between sex acts, his research was dismissed or ignored. Some three decades later Ross and Roy Caldwell of the University of California, Berkeley, have bred and studied that elusive cephalopod, the larger Pacific striped octopus (LPSO). They’ve confirmed what Rodaniche found—and more. LPSO mates will share dens and meals, whereas most octopuses are loners (if not cannibals). LPSOs mate as often as daily, and females lay eggs over months; in most other species, females die after raising one brood. And though most octopuses couple warily, at arm’s length, LPSOs mate with the beaks on their undersides pressed together, as if kissing (above). With all those revelations from just one species, imagine what’s still to be discovered. More than 300 octopus species are believed to inhabit Earth’s oceans, and many have never been studied.
