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Connoting eight feet, octopuses are solitary animals with eight arms living on the ocean flour. These animals are of 100 different kinds while the Giant Octopus is known as the biggest one of all. Considered a mollusk, the octopus can extend up to 23 ft long from arm tip to another arm tip. Most of them weight 400 pounds, while the smallest one is 3 / 8 inch. The design of its body is such that there are eight arms and two rows of suction cups. What is unique to this mollusk is that it is able to rejuvenate itself, regrowing itself in cases of an accident when it loses a body part.
An octopus actually has an eye on each side of the head. It has very good eyesight which compensates for its inability to hear. They have very good defense mechanisms. This they are able to do by first catching their prey with their arms. They kill it their victims by biting them and paralyzing their prey with a nerve poison. They then suck out the flesh of their catch.
Other ways of protecting themselves include living in hidden spaces on the sea floor. These spaces provide a safe haven from the killer predators of the ocean floor. They squirt black ink into the water and this allows them to escape from the enemy. Another defense mechanism that they use is changing of the color of their skin. Like a chameleon, their skin color blends with that of the environment, camouflaging their presence from the enemy. They are able to escape by swimming fast, spewing water from its body in jet-like propulsion.
Perhaps one wonders what these sea creatures eat since their body type is quite different from the fishes of the ocean or even the sharks, whales and other sea animals. For the most part, octopuses eat all the other small creatures in the category of fish and other crustaceans. For example, they swallow scallops, crabs, snails, turtles and other small octopuses. Octopuses live short lives. Lucky is an octopus that lasts for six months. Those of the larger species such as the North Pacific Giant Octopus are able to live for up to five years under good and favorable conditions.
What causes their death? Reproduction. The males can only lice for a few months after mating. Meanwhile, the female octopus dies right after they hatch their eggs. They are so engrossed in taking care of their unhatched eggs that they literally neglect everything protecting the eggs with all their might. That starts their downfall though, everything revolves around these eggs.
The octopus has a special way of reproducing. The males use a special kind of arm. This arm is called a hectocotylus. This is instrumental on inserting the spermatophore's or the packets of sperms into the females cavity. In cases when the eggs are not yet mature, the female is able to keep those eggs preserved for weeks.
When the eggs have been fertilized, the female octopus lays approximately 200, 000 eggs. What follows is a unique kind of hanging these eggs in strings from the ceiling of her hair. When the eggs are hatched, the young octopuses must spend some time in a cloud of plankton where they eat all sorts of crab larvae.
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Research essay sample on Giant Octopus Arm Tip Eggs
