Blue Ring Octopus - Cephalopods -very cool critters
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South East Queensland Marine Aquarium and Ocean activities Forum :: SEQMAOAF :: Marine aquarium discusion.
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Blue Ring Octopus - Cephalopods -very cool critters
As some may know I recently acquired a Blue ring octopus from a. Club member not wanting it, a new addition to my tank I particularly enjoy.
She has an amazing personality and switches between the two tanks I keep her in, which are side by side....I do have lids on both but after about a month I realised they don't hold her anyway - but this is only when I don't feed her for a week. Her diet is small crabs and shrimp, oh - and some of the slower fish that she doesn't like.
Its funny how she is selective about her tank mates, I have a wrasse, clown and damsels all sharing fine in fact the wrasse will even steal food from her and she tolerates it no problem, but some other fish she just eats....
Occys - Cephalopods have colour-changing chromatophores on their skin, which allows them to camouflage themselves, they can change colour as well as texture to blend in — but the blue-ringed octopus has a different trick up its tentacle.
The blue-ringed octopus is tiny and awesome — but, as we Australians know, those blue iridescent rings are a warning sign. The octopus' venom is the deadliest in the world, enough to kill an adult human within minutes via a paralysis that shuts the body down completely, and there is with no anti-venom —victims have to be intubated and kept alive via artificial respiration until the venom passes from the body. Not that I can ever name a victim.....
But how this octopus shows the rings is different to how squids and other octopodes camouflage themselves, discovered Lydia Mäthger, a biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts. She and a team of researchers filmed the octopus at super-slow speeds to find out the secret.
The colour in the rings is not caused by chromatophores, but iridophores — an iridescent layer, usually under the skin of the cephalopod, that shifts to reflect light. In the blue-ringed octopus, the "rings" are sections of the skin where the iridophores aren't covered by the chromatophore layer. The circle of skin inside the ring has a direct neural connection, and the octopus can contract it at will, revealing the glowing blue ring underneath. How cool is that - digital camo
I will attach some pics later today - I think that cephalopods amazing and very cool ?
She has an amazing personality and switches between the two tanks I keep her in, which are side by side....I do have lids on both but after about a month I realised they don't hold her anyway - but this is only when I don't feed her for a week. Her diet is small crabs and shrimp, oh - and some of the slower fish that she doesn't like.
Its funny how she is selective about her tank mates, I have a wrasse, clown and damsels all sharing fine in fact the wrasse will even steal food from her and she tolerates it no problem, but some other fish she just eats....
Occys - Cephalopods have colour-changing chromatophores on their skin, which allows them to camouflage themselves, they can change colour as well as texture to blend in — but the blue-ringed octopus has a different trick up its tentacle.
The blue-ringed octopus is tiny and awesome — but, as we Australians know, those blue iridescent rings are a warning sign. The octopus' venom is the deadliest in the world, enough to kill an adult human within minutes via a paralysis that shuts the body down completely, and there is with no anti-venom —victims have to be intubated and kept alive via artificial respiration until the venom passes from the body. Not that I can ever name a victim.....
But how this octopus shows the rings is different to how squids and other octopodes camouflage themselves, discovered Lydia Mäthger, a biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts. She and a team of researchers filmed the octopus at super-slow speeds to find out the secret.
The colour in the rings is not caused by chromatophores, but iridophores — an iridescent layer, usually under the skin of the cephalopod, that shifts to reflect light. In the blue-ringed octopus, the "rings" are sections of the skin where the iridophores aren't covered by the chromatophore layer. The circle of skin inside the ring has a direct neural connection, and the octopus can contract it at will, revealing the glowing blue ring underneath. How cool is that - digital camo
I will attach some pics later today - I think that cephalopods amazing and very cool ?
finfan- Posts : 703
Join date : 2011-08-30
Location : Brisbane QLD Ausralia
Re: Blue Ring Octopus - Cephalopods -very cool critters
I am so insanely jealous!! Those blue rings are so awesome.
Crotalus- Posts : 30
Join date : 2012-01-19
finfan- Posts : 703
Join date : 2011-08-30
Location : Brisbane QLD Ausralia
Re: Blue Ring Octopus - Cephalopods -very cool critters
amazing pics, I've never seen photos that show it interacting like that.
Crotalus- Posts : 30
Join date : 2012-01-19
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