Octopuses and squid are mollusks

Long ago, sailors told scary tales about sea monsters with many long arms. The terrible creatures wrapped their arms around ships and pulled them under the sea. Stories about big sea monsters are just legends. But sea creatures with many long arms are for real.

Perhaps the best-known of these creatures are octopuses. An octopus has a soft, rounded body and eight long arms. Octopuses live in oceans all over the world. They live in shallow waters along coasts and in deep seas.

Octopuses are related to squid and resemble them. Octopuses and squid are mollusks, a kind of animal with a soft body. Unlike other mollusks, such as clams and oysters, octopuses and squid have no hard shells to protect them.

THE BODY OF AN OCTOPUS

An octopus is an animal without any bones. Surrounding the main portion of its body is a fleshy covering, called a mantle. Most of the internal organs of an octopus are inside the mantle. An octopus has two big eyes. Octopuses have very good vision.

The arms of an octopus stretch out from the bottom of the mantle. The arms can twist and turn every which way. An octopus uses its strong arms to creep along the ocean bottom. It also uses them to grab things, such as crabs and other small animals to eat.

Rows of round suckers cover an octopus’s arms. An octopus uses its suckers to feel. The suckers can create intense suction, allowing an octopus to hold on tightly to the animals it hunts or a rock. It can even use its suckers to smell things.

The mouth of an octopus is at the bottom of the mantle, where the arms come together. Outside the mouth is a beak. The only hard part of an octopus is its beak. The beak looks a little like the beak of a parrot.

HOW DOES AN OCTOPUS SWIM?

An octopus can dart quickly through the water. To swim, an octopus draws water into its body. Then it pushes a jet of water out of a tube, called a funnel, propelling itself forward. The harder an octopus pushes the water out, the faster it moves.

SELF DEFENSE

Seals, eels, and other sea animals prey on octopuses. An octopus’s main method of defense is to shoot a cloud of dark ink into the water. The ink cloud confuses the attacker, and the octopus jets away.

Octopuses can also change color rapidly when they are in danger. They change color to fit in with their surroundings. This helps them to hide from prey.

HOW BIG ARE OCTOPUSES?

There are many different species (kinds) of octopus. The smallest octopuses are only about as long as your little finger. The biggest octopus is the giant Pacific octopus. Its arms could wrap around a minivan!

HOW DO OCTOPUSES LIVE?

Octopuses live in almost all oceans of the world. Most octopuses live in shallow areas on the bottom of the ocean. Some of them float near the surface far out at sea. Others live in deep water.

An octopus likes to be alone. Usually, an octopus will hide out in its den. An octopus can build a den out of a can or a broken bottle. It can dig a den in sand or live in a rocky cave.

The octopus comes out to hunt. It loves to eat crabs and other animals with shells. The octopus grabs its prey with its arms. After the octopus has gathered enough prey, it goes back to its den to eat. The octopus is a messy eater. It just throws the empty shells into a heap outside its den.

An octopus has a rough tongue call a radula. It uses its beak to crack shells. Then it uses its radula to remove the seafood.

BABY OCTOPUSES

A female octopus lays its eggs outside her body. She may put her eggs inside a small cave. The female carefully guards the eggs until they hatch.

When the baby octopuses hatch, they float up to the ocean surface where they live for several weeks. Birds and fish eat many of them. The ones that survive drop back into deeper water where they grow up to be adult octopuses.