‘Tens of thousands’ of baby octopuses at Georgia aquarium unexpectedly hatch

When Octavius, a female common octopus at the University of Georgia’s Marine Education Center and Aquarium, went into hiding for roughly a month, officials at the aquatic center were baffled.

Normally a present creature, Octavius would greet visitors by sticking her tentacles on the inside of her tank. But in recent weeks, the sea animal — formally known as an Octopus vulgaris — spent more time hiding in a rock cave inside her tank, the Savannah Morning News reported.

Early last week, officials finally figured out why: Octavius was pregnant and eventually laid her eggs, which hatched into “tens of thousands” of baby octopuses, according to the newspaper.

“I noticed this cloud of moving dots and I realized, ‘Oh my God, she had babies. There are babies. There are babies everywhere,’” Devin Dumont, the curator at the aquarium, told the Savannah Morning News.

“I immediately started scooping them out and putting them in buckets and there were just buckets and buckets and buckets full of tiny octopi,” Dumont, who discovered the octopus's secret while cleaning her tank, added.

Female common octopuses can store a male octopus’ sperm for weeks before the eggs are fertilized and eventually laid. When the female is ready, it will "become restless and search for a sheltered place where they can lay and brood the eggs without disturbance," the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology explains online.

"Fertilization takes place in the oviductal glands as the mature eggs pass through them on their way out of the oviducts," the museum continued, adding these creatures can lay up to 500,000 eggs.

Only 2 reviews. One 5 star raving about it and one 3 star because: Don’t get very much for the price.

Most of their production goes to the Japanese market.

The product is not shipped by Amazon. It ships from the factory overnight. Here is the other review.

Delivered overnight - my only complaint is that the estimated delivery was a week from now so I wasn’t expecting it so quickly (is that even a complaint?). Once I tracked the order and realized it was arriving today (as in the next day) I couldn’t wait! And it was delivered it 1 minute before they promised. Go team.

Delicious. Pulled out the spoon (sorry no chopsticks available) and am loving every bit. Well I was until I ate it all.

Octopuses are very smart and don’t deserve to be eaten!

In related news...

Scientists gave octopuses ecstasy and it revealed a secret genetic link to humans

News.com.au ^ | Sept 21, 2018 | Nick Whigham

SCIENTISTS gave the popular party drug MDMA to a group of octopuses and the results were “completely unexpected” and reveal a hidden link to humans

SCIENTISTS have discovered what happens when you give the party drug MDMA to an octopus, and say the animals surprising reaction has “amazing” implications.

A team of researchers in the US decided to give a group of octopuses MDMA, often referred to as ecstasy or Molly to see how it would alter their behaviour.

After being dosed, the sea creatures become much more social, friendly and interested in others.

It made the animals — normally anti-social creatures — want to gather together, hug, and touch each other in a curious fashion.

Remarkably, they exhibited much the same behaviour as humans do when taking the drug that produces feeling of euphoria and a desire for social connection. And that’s the surprising part.

As the researchers pointed out, human and octopus lineages are separated by over 500 million years of evolution and show divergent anatomical patterns of brain organisation. In terms of our nervous system, we could hardly be more different.

The purpose of the study was for scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts to work out if octopuses and humans shared any genetic links.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...

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