A Good Day for Octopuses in Hong Kong

An octopus is released by a group of Buddhists into Victoria harbour in Hong Kong on 4 December 2010. The group gather regularly to release fish left unsold from Hong Kong’s thriving local markets back into the harbour, while offering prayers of long life and freedom from future captors.

This was originally posted on AllCreatures.Tumblr.com

Thanks to Everything Octopus reader, Rene, for sharing this link!

***Be sure to check back tomorrow for the annual Everything Octopus Cephalopodmas Contest!***

Video: Unique and Fascinating Octopus!

Octopus strange behavior, Passing cloud display from Matteo Guardini on Vimeo.

Video Description
During a night dive in Philippines, I filmed a strange octopus.
It was in 1,5 meters of water in sand and rock bottom.
Its size resemble those of the blue ring octopus.
I was very impressed by his behavior.
Compared to the other octopuses, it did not camouflage with the bottom but it relesed a strange skin effect.
Frequently a dark row start from its head and goes down till the front arms like a flash.
I had the impression that he told me: be careful, I am dangerous!
This effect is called "passing cloud".

Video: Hairy Octopus

This is a very cool video! That must have been one keen diver filming the hairy octopus - the octopus blends in so well that it could easily be written off as a bit of algae and missed entirely.

Species: The Hairy Octopus

Ok, the species name is not official. Not much is known about this elusive non-identified species of octopus, although I did find it on one site labeled as "The Holy Grail of Cephalopods". How cool is that? These hairy lookin' fellas are found in the waters of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

These photos were taken in Satonda, Indonesia. More wonderful marine-life shots from Eric Cheng can be found on Flickr .


Less than 1 inch in length!
There are also a few good shots shots on Diving4Images.com. It would be a copyright infringement to post them here, so you'll hafta' mosey on over there to see for yourself.

Octopus Species: Mimic Octopus

Appropriately named, this unique species of octopus has a very special skill: it can mimic several different sea creatures. The Mimic Octopus, which grows to about 2 feet in length, is found in the tropical seas of South East Asia and was not officially discovered until 1998. Like any other octopus, the Mimic Octopus is an intelligent mollusk with a boneless body, eight arms, each with two rows of suction cups. It catches pray with its arms and kills with it's hard beak, or paralyzes prey with a nerve poison, then sucks out the flesh.

While all octopuses have the ability to change color and even texture to hide among rocks and blend in with the sea floor, the Mimic Octopus actually impersonates other animals. The long list of creatures it has been seen masquerading as includes jellyfish, mantis shrimp, sea snakes, brittle stars, and lionfish. 

It is believed that the Mimic Octopus developed its imitation technique to adapt to their environment, where they are prey as well as predator. Becoming a "poisonous" creature is often the best defense from being eaten by the many carnivorous sea creatures that patrol the waters. Mimicry also helps the Mimic Octopus sneak up on prey that would normally flee at the sight of an octopus; it can imitate a crab as a potential mate, only to devour the "suitor" it bamboozled.