![]() ![]() Males only live a few months after mating, and females are genetically programmed to expire shortly after their eggs hatch. Octopuses die shortly after reproducing.A new arm will regrow in six to eight weeks. An octopus will intentionally lose one of its arms as a decoy to predators, allowing it to escape.When threatened, the giant Pacific octopus flees behind a cloud of ink. It's not uncommon for these giants to reach over 16 feet in length and weigh more than 110 pounds. The world's largest octopus species is the giant Pacific octopus. What was the world's largest octopus species? And their soft bodies can squeeze into impossibly small cracks and crevices where predators can't follow. Fast swimmers, they can jet forward by expelling water through their mantles. The ink even contains a substance that dulls a predator's sense of smell, making the fleeing octopus harder to track. When discovered, an octopus will release a cloud of black ink to obscure its attacker's view, giving it time to swim away. The young octopuses swim to the surface and float among the plankton for a few months until they're ready to sink to the seabed and begin their life as an adult. ![]() The octopus is not very maternal as eggs hatch, the mother will blow the young out of the den. The octopus is usually a bottom dweller, but some species will use the currents along the bottom of the seabed to move from place to place. Predators such as sharks, eels, and dolphins swim by without even noticing it. Using a network of pigment cells and specialized muscles in its skin, the common octopus can almost instantaneously match the colors, patterns, and even textures of its surroundings. Its first and most amazing line of defense is its ability to hide in plain sight. What are the natural enemies of the octopus?.Young octopus eat copepods, larval crabs and larval seastars. They prey on crabs, crayfish, and mollusks, and will sometimes use their ink to disorient their victims before attacking. They can grow to about 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) in length and weigh up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms), although averages are much smaller. Considered the most intelligent of all invertebrates, the common octopus is found in the tropical and temperate waters of the world’s oceans. ![]()
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