Land Octopus

[Moontanman]

Our cephalopod overlords have begun their assault on land, only a matter of time now! The extreme tides in the area seem to be a forcing factor for this species. 

 

 

[Ken Fabian]

Yes, they can and do move about outside of water but not generally for extended periods. Minutes usually, but stories of hours (if keeping wet somehow) are around. Stories of their escapes from aquariums or of moving between tanks abound - prey species mysteriously disappearing from their nearby tanks, with an octopus watching the fuss it caused from it's own tank, to which it returned. Clever and can squeeze through very small openings.

[Moontanman]

Just now, Ken Fabian said:

Yes, they can and do move about outside of water but not generally for extended periods. Minutes usually, but stories of hours (if keeping wet somehow) are around. Stories of their escapes from aquariums or of moving between tanks abound - prey species mysteriously disappearing from their nearby tanks, with an octopus watching the fuss it caused from it's own tank, to which it returned. Clever and can squeeze through very small openings.

I used to keep them, they are common locally, they will move from one tank to another, they display emotions, and even seem to have a sense of humor. Mine, I say mine, I raised a couple dozen over three or five years, would travel at night to get into the food tank where I kept crayfish. The crayfish would vanish at night if i forgot to strap down the lids of the octopus tanks. One would squirt water at me from across the room and another tried to eat my cat. They didn't make good pets, their lives are too short but they reminded me of cats more than anything else. Too much emotional investment in an animal that wouldn't live more than a year... One even had it out with my Dog one night, she was a big octopus and the dog freaked when the octopus climbed down and plopped on top of him. My wife had to break them up and put the octopus back in the tank. I was at work. Poor dog wouldn't even walk by the tank after that... 

 

I have heard of them hunting wharf rats and I saw a video of one catching a seagull and eating it... 

 

 

[MigL]

When I imagine water-world aliens, octopodes ( octopuses, octopi ??? ) always come to mind.

[Moontanman]

3 hours ago, MigL said:

When I imagine water-world aliens, octopodes ( octopuses, octopi ??? ) always come to mind.

 

figuring out a path to technology and space flight is a bear if you live on a water planet no matter how smart you are. maybe the Fermi paradox is explained by the vast majority of intelligences being imprisoned on water worlds... 

[DrP]

2 hours ago, Moontanman said:

 

figuring out a path to technology and space flight is a bear if you live on a water planet no matter how smart you are

The Aquatic Xindi seemed to manage it...  although they were probably helped by the Reptilians.  I always thought they were one of the most far fetched races in all of Star Trek. I'll eat my hat if out first contact is with fish in spacesuits.

[Endy0816]

Possibly if they figured out the trapping and storage of gasses. Few different uses that would offer them.

[DrP]

1 minute ago, Endy0816 said:

Possibly if they figured out the trapping and storage of gasses. Few different uses that would offer them.

Yea - but realistically they would need to smelt metals to build space craft...  which I suppose they could do in an under ground cave that has trapped air in it as you suggest...  but that defeats the point of them being aquatic.

[CharonY]

12 hours ago, Moontanman said:

I used to keep them, they are common locally, they will move from one tank to another, they display emotions, and even seem to have a sense of humor. Mine, I say mine, I raised a couple dozen over three or five years, would travel at night to get into the food tank where I kept crayfish. The crayfish would vanish at night if i forgot to strap down the lids of the octopus tanks. One would squirt water at me from across the room and another tried to eat my cat. They didn't make good pets, their lives are too short but they reminded me of cats more than anything else. Too much emotional investment in an animal that wouldn't live more than a year... One even had it out with my Dog one night, she was a big octopus and the dog freaked when the octopus climbed down and plopped on top of him. My wife had to break them up and put the octopus back in the tank. I was at work. Poor dog wouldn't even walk by the tank after that... 

 

I have heard of them hunting wharf rats and I saw a video of one catching a seagull and eating it... 

 

 

I think we should start looking into prolonging their lives. Considering the growth potential I am almost sure there is something...

[Moontanman]

4 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I think we should start looking into prolonging their lives. Considering the growth potential I am almost sure there is something...

are we talking "uplift" ? 

10 minutes ago, Endy0816 said:

Possibly if they figured out the trapping and storage of gasses. Few different uses that would offer them.

It would make for an interesting technological progression, discovering fire as a curiosity before it could be useful. Like discovering lodestone...  

I can see an underwater intelligence using metals forged this way to explore the land, a small vehicle crawls out of the ocean onto a small island. Their equivalent of the first moon landing... 

[DrP]

I guess there are a lot of variations between different species of octopus....  I read something a year or so ago they suggested they live until they mate and reproduce - then they just stop and give up.  With one species...  the female is very aggressive and the male has to sneak up on it and shove it's penis arm into her blowhole before she notices him and eats him...  he then snaps this penis arm off and leaves it in - I am guessing as a nutritional gift or a fun toy for her to play with or something, I am not sure. Maybe she is so stressed out by the detached penis arm stuck in her blow hole that she doesn't get a chance or a thought to eat him. Who knows?  Maybe I'll have to look that up again sometime.  

Do I remember something about hundreds of offspring with the same genetic make up as each other?  100's of clones? I'll have to look it up again when I get home.

 

 

[Moontanman]

1 minute ago, DrP said:

I guess there are a lot of variations between different species of octopus....  I read something a year or so ago they suggested they live until they mate and reproduce - then they just stop and give up.  With one species...  the female is very aggressive and the male has to sneak up on it and shove it's penis arm into her blowhole before she notices him and eats him...  he then snaps this penis arm off and leaves it in - I am guessing as a nutritional gift or a fun toy for her to play with or something, I am not sure. Maybe she is so stressed out by the detached penis arm stuck in her blow hole that she doesn't get a chance or a thought to eat him. Who knows?  Maybe I'll have to look that up again sometime.  

Do I remember something about hundreds of offspring with the same genetic make up as each other?  100's of clones? I'll have to look it up again when I get home.

 

 

 

Supposedly there is or was a species that lived beyond reproduction someplace off the Pacific coast of central america but it hasn't been seen in several decades... 

[CharonY]

24 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

are we talking "uplift" ? 

Perhaps. I really need some competent help in the lab.

[Moontanman]

2 minutes ago, CharonY said:

Perhaps. I really need some competent help in the lab.

I used to work in a lab, I was quite good at it but an octopus would be hard to compete with.... 

[CharonY]

19 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

I used to work in a lab, I was quite good at it but an octopus would be hard to compete with.... 

TBH, I'd already be happy if it wasn't playing with the cellphone all day long. 

[Moontanman]

1 minute ago, CharonY said:

TBH, I'd already be happy if it wasn't playing with the cellphone all day long. 

No cell phone back then! 

[rangerx]

I've worked with octopus too, in the mid eighties. We were doing live capture, tagging, release and recapture recording growth rates. Retained captures recovered upwards 25% of their food as body weight. We'd use a soap bottle with a small amount of bleach to cause the animal to leave the den, but recaptured octopuses didn't like that, instead willingly volunteered for capture, seemingly knowing they'd be re-released following weight and measurement data collection.

I have a natural pearl collected from an octopus, the only known one from that species of mollusk.

 

[Ken Fabian]

8 hours ago, DrP said:

Yea - but realistically they would need to smelt metals to build space craft...  which I suppose they could do in an under ground cave that has trapped air in it as you suggest...  but that defeats the point of them being aquatic.

Maybe electrolytic processes could work for refining and making metals under water. It might be an important early step, preceding 'dry' processes.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Ken Fabian

[Moontanman]

If not a water wold then how about an ice locked moon like Europa? Instead of digging down they could dig up! the surface of Europa is connected to the surface via subduction of ice, that ice contains oxygen created from Jupiter's radiation belts. Enough in fact by some estimates the oceans of Europa should have as much or more oxygen than our own oceans. 

Could octopi be a colonization effort from Europa that went wrong?  More importantly could such under ice creatures manage to break through to the surface in a useful way?