Malinda and I found this little octopus at Redondo on Monday. S/he was spread out over what turned out to be the end of a buried pipe, and was not inclined to move. As it happens, there was a second octopus inside the pipe, and the first octo seemed to be guarding it. This makes me wonder: were these two getting ready to mate? Did we interrupt an octopus hot date? I'm just venturing a wild guess here, because I frankly have no idea what's going on. Can somebody enlighten us about this behavior?
Thanks!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drY0AMHMmUE[/youtube]
Is This Octo-Porn??
Is This Octo-Porn??
Dave
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Re: Is This Octo-Porn??
Yeah we were having trouble that day. Dad has a Comp-U-Mask, so he was using that for gauges, while my gauges had a low battery. So he switched his console with mine and we just put up with the low battery beeping since we both had something that could tell us how much air we had.
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Re: Is This Octo-Porn??
Hi Dave,
The octopus in your video appears to be O. rubescens so I'm basing my guesses on that. I'm not so good at estimating size but, unless you've got really big fingers, that animal looks too young to be mating (insert joke about today's kids here).
My books indicate that O. rubescens maxes out at about a pound which would imply that breeding size would have to be at least half that. So, if you think the animal was in that size range (after all, you're the one that was on site) then octo-porn would not be out of the question.
Octopus mating involves the male pulling a spermatophore out of his head and inserting it into the female's head (one arm is specially modified to accomplish this) so the loving couple doesn't necessarily have to adopt any special position. OTOH: The spermatophore is a fairly bulky item and could be difficult to maneuver into a small octopus filled cave such as is shown in your video.
The alternative explanation is decidedly less friendly. As I understand the term, octopuses are not territorial in the classic sense but they are more than willing to kill and eat each other. It's possible that the visible octopus was trying to get the other one out of the den for the purpose of lunch.
But finally, the predator-prey idea would seem to be contradicted by the reluctance of the visible octopus to leave the scene. It's my understanding that an octopus is generally pretty willing to drop its prey in service of escaping a threat but logic would imply that it might be far more reluctant to abandon mating; One can always get another meal but spawning is a once in a lifetime deal.
None of this answers your question but perhaps it can help fuel your own speculations.
Fuelishly yours,
Alex
The octopus in your video appears to be O. rubescens so I'm basing my guesses on that. I'm not so good at estimating size but, unless you've got really big fingers, that animal looks too young to be mating (insert joke about today's kids here).
My books indicate that O. rubescens maxes out at about a pound which would imply that breeding size would have to be at least half that. So, if you think the animal was in that size range (after all, you're the one that was on site) then octo-porn would not be out of the question.
Octopus mating involves the male pulling a spermatophore out of his head and inserting it into the female's head (one arm is specially modified to accomplish this) so the loving couple doesn't necessarily have to adopt any special position. OTOH: The spermatophore is a fairly bulky item and could be difficult to maneuver into a small octopus filled cave such as is shown in your video.
The alternative explanation is decidedly less friendly. As I understand the term, octopuses are not territorial in the classic sense but they are more than willing to kill and eat each other. It's possible that the visible octopus was trying to get the other one out of the den for the purpose of lunch.
But finally, the predator-prey idea would seem to be contradicted by the reluctance of the visible octopus to leave the scene. It's my understanding that an octopus is generally pretty willing to drop its prey in service of escaping a threat but logic would imply that it might be far more reluctant to abandon mating; One can always get another meal but spawning is a once in a lifetime deal.
None of this answers your question but perhaps it can help fuel your own speculations.
Fuelishly yours,
Alex
Re: Is This Octo-Porn??
Alex,
To me s/he actually seemed a little bit big to be a rubescens, but everything else pointed to that rather than GPO. So maturity may not be a problem. Another possibility we were considering was, the one in the pipe was a female preparing a nest, and the one up top was the male protecting while she set up housekeeping. Or something like that. To my knowledge, octos don't actually do that, but I'm grasping at most any straw I can here.
To me s/he actually seemed a little bit big to be a rubescens, but everything else pointed to that rather than GPO. So maturity may not be a problem. Another possibility we were considering was, the one in the pipe was a female preparing a nest, and the one up top was the male protecting while she set up housekeeping. Or something like that. To my knowledge, octos don't actually do that, but I'm grasping at most any straw I can here.
Dave
"Clearly, you weren't listening to what I'm about to say."
--
Check out my Internet show:
http://www.irvingszoo.com
"Clearly, you weren't listening to what I'm about to say."
--
Check out my Internet show:
http://www.irvingszoo.com