What do octopuses look like

If a predator gets too close octopuses can escape quickly, shooting themselves forward by expelling water from a muscular tube called a siphon. Their soft bodies mean octopuses can fit into impossibly small nooks and crannies, as long as the holes are not smaller than the only hard parts of their bodies: their beaks. If all else fails, octopuses can lose an arm to an attacker and regrow one later.

Octopuses can open clamshells, maneuver rocks—even dismantle the filtration systems of an aquarium tank. Another shot a jet of water at a light to cause a commotion. There are around species of octopus and they are found in every ocean.

Most live on the seafloor , but some, like the paper nautilus , drift nearer to the surface. Octopuses mostly feed on crabs, shrimp, and mollusks. Solitary animals, they typically live alone, sometimes in dens they build from rocks, sometimes in shells they pull over on top of themselves.

All rights reserved. Octopuses How many hearts does an octopus have? How do species like the mimic octopus camouflage themselves? Find out about these and other octopus facts. Common Name: Octopuses. Scientific Name: Octopoda. Diet: Carnivore. Average Life Span: unknown.

Octopuses use several different strategies to evade predators—they camouflage themselves by quickly changing their skin color, they make colorful displays or eject ink to startle or confuse potential predators, they squeeze into small crevices to escape, and they quickly propel themselves through water. Newly hatched octopuses will eat small foods such as copepods, larval crabs, and sea stars. Adult octopuses feed on crabs, clams, snails, small fishes, and even other octopuses. They typically hunt at night, pouncing on their prey and wrapping it in the webbing between their arms.

They penetrate hard-shelled prey with their beaks. The male initiates mating by approaching the female. The female looks for a suitable den site and lays the eggs, attached in chains, to the rock or coral or the den.

The eggs can number in the hundreds of thousands for some species. The female guards and cares for the eggs, aerating and cleaning them until they hatch. As soon as they hatch, the young are able to swim, eat, and produce ink. The male parent dies soon after mating and the female survives only until her brood has hatched. An octopus will generally live for about one to three years, depending on the species.

Octopuses are spread throughout a large ocean area and are solitary, which makes it difficult to determine the status of their populations. They are not believed to be under threat, but they are sensitive to pollutants. Scientists are still discovering new species of octopuses. Octopuses move using jet propulsion—they suck water into their mantle cavity, then quickly contract their muscles to force the water out through a narrow siphon, aiming the water to steer in a particular direction.

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The octopus can also change to gray, brown, pink, blue, or green to blend in with its surroundings. Octopuses may also change color as a way to communicate with other octopuses. Octopuses are solitary creatures that live alone in dens built from rocks, which the octopus moves into place using its powerful arms. All rights reserved. Personality Quizzes. Funny Fill-In. Amazing Animals. Weird But True!