Crab Meets its own Face Hugger

facehugger, guys.

A Social Octopus Found

If recent octopus discoveries have taught us anything, it's that these eight-armed ocean dwellers are smart. They can use tools, change color in an instant, and commission their arms to solve problems. But they generally do all this as loners.

Now, new research into a surprisingly social octopus is shattering even the most expansive ideas of known octopus behavior.

Panamanian biologist Aradio Rodaniche first reported the Pacific striped octopus in 1991 off the coast of Nicaragua, noting its strange behavior—living in groups of possibly up to 40, laying multiple egg clutches, and mating face-to-face and sucker-to-sucker. Most other octopus species, for instance, come together only to mate.

But scientists didn't see another one of these curious octopuses for another 20 years, when Richard Ross, a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, came across one in 2012. Through a commercial collector, he acquired several wild specimens to study in the lab.

Ross is one of the few scientists who are studying and observing some of this octopus's truly bizarre—and sometimes anxiety-provoking—behavior, which he and his team will describe in an upcoming publication.

"Regular octopus mating, where the male is behind and on top of the [female]—or far away—that's scary enough to watch," said Ross. Females of many species, for instance, will sometimes kill and eat their mate, even if they are mating from a distance.

But "watching these guys come and interact with their beaks—wrapped up in a ball of limbs—are they fighting or mating?" he recalled wondering.

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First Octopus Farm Starting in the Yucatan, Mexico

Fish farms now produce million tons of fish each year around the globe. But octopuses have largely escaped this kind of confined aquaculturing, despite a growing global demand and overfishing. Why? That’s the million-ton question.

Based on their brief life cycles, prolific reproduction and efficient metabolisms, octopuses should be ideal candidates for aquaculture. They have short lives, many taking only a year or two to reach full maturity. Females lay thousands and thousands of eggs. And as poikilotherms, they are incredibly efficient at turning calories consumed into body mass.

Groups of scientists and entrepreneurs across the world—from Japan to Australia to Italy to Mexico—have been trying to find a way to rear these finicky creatures from egg to export. And most of them have struggled. But now, one farm has reported success, a move that could help wild populations and researchers alike.

On the Yucatan coast in Mexico, a small cooperative is finally rearing Octopus maya from eggs after a decade of research and unsuccessful attempts, according to news reports. Called Mayab Mollusks, it is still in its infancy, but the group is planning to gear up to larger commercial operations.

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