Rare Blanket or Veil Octopus

Blanket Octopus, rescued at Azerbaijani Beach - Qatar
16 January 2021

This amazing and rare marine invertebrate was found by my wife practically immobile on a sandbar at low tide and carefully taken by us, to deeper waters where it reacted and gave us a beautiful veil dance before continuing his journey.

After a quick investigation we discovered it is a rare female Octopus and not a Cuttlefish or Squid, with an amazing history under a strange and unique shape.

The Veils or Blanket Octopus, unlike other octopuses, does not hide in rocks or caves, it swims freely in the open sea and therefore has acquired a peculiar shape that favors its buoyancy, like a parachute. This evolutionary technique has been achieved thanks to the wide semitransparent membranes with the appearance of veil or blanket that cover 4 of its longest legs, using it to suspend themselves in water and also use it to intimidate a possible predator in case of danger, (Not sure if they are capable to use ink), colors changing colors or self-sectioning their tentacles add veils, distracting the predator (something similar than some lizards and their tail).

The veil on the longer legs can be retracted or expanded to look bigger or even as fishing net.

Males and females defend themselves using sections of stinging tentacles taken from a Jellyfish, ( Portuguese Man-of-War) and hold them in the suckers of the two pairs of upper arms. It is unknown how the octopus protects itself from the stinging poison.

Other curious characteristic striking within the animal world since the females are 100 times larger and 40,000 times heavier than the males and it is the animal with major size difference between gender, natural selection may also have contributed to extreme “dimorphism” in this species, despite male dies after mating.
Tremoctopus is a genus of pelagic cephalopods, commonly known as blanket octopodes.

Williams Morales
@willinqatar
https://www.um.es/eubacteria/pulpo_velos.pdf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_octopus

https://www.google.es/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/animals/invertebrates/b/blanket-octopus

Видео Rare Blanket or Veil Octopus канала Williams Morales