Cephalopods are freaking awesome

That mimic octopus was amazing! I loved when it turned into the "Furry Turkey Running on 2 Legs" that was just crazy because what in the ocean moves like that for him to mimic???

 

Yeah, cephs are definitely are one of the coolest "water pets" you can own, not to mention the smartest, even giving some vertabrates like a dog, a run for its money in the pet intellegence department. The only bad thing, as we know, is they are short-lived animals, although some larger species like the O. vulgaris can life up to 5 years but you need a HUGE tank to keep one happy. Although I know that some people have kept some species alive for longer than a year but they are usually the cold water species and I do not know why, maybe due to colder water containing higher oxygen levels, who knows. Anways, I don't know if you knew this but an intresting thing about the lifespan of octos is they contain a built in "life-timer" sort to speak. For example, once a male mates or a female rears the eggs (or lays unfertilized eggs), they secrete a hormone from glands located under their eyes that triggers senesence. I can't recall where but a lab studying cephs removed this gland and increased the lifespan in some octos, I don't remeber for how long, but its cool nevertheless . Also, another aggravating thing about their short life spans is the question of how much can an octo learn?, we know they excell in learning new things, such as opening jars and dismantiling equipment but because they live such brief lifes it is hard to determine how smart they really are. But I digress, they are AWESOME and I recommened rolling on over to www.tonmo.com, its a great site with tons of info on cephs. To tell you the truth, the reason why I got into aquariums was to own an octo, I have only owned one so far and it died about a month after I got him, it was pretty dishearting to lose him and i've not tried sence.

 

Just the latin name of "Head Foot" makes them cool.

Octopi are always a neat critter. Have you seen the special about the Humboldt squid on Discovery IIRC?

Neat smart critters that have been known to attack people. These are like the torpedoes of the ocean.

 

Maybe it was mimicking shaggy and scooby doo running away from a ghost?

 

Yeah, it was Melissa. I got to see her octopus and her cuttlefish. Watching them change their chromatophores was even more amazing in person than seeing it in videos.