Red octopus-Octopus rubescens
A red octopus's normal color is red or reddish brown, but like other octopuses it can change quickly — in a fraction of a second — to yellow, brown, white, red or a variety of mottled colors. To communicate or court, an octopus might contrast with its surroundings; to hide, it will camouflage itself. It can also alter its skin texture to match sand or a rocky surface.
Red octopus are thought to be clever animals. In 2012, a tiny juvenile hitchhiked into the Aquarium on a sponge, and hid in one of our exhibits for a year before being discovered walking across the Aquarium's floor in the middle of the night!
"We'd noticed that there weren't as many crabs coming out at feeding time in that exhibit," said one aquarist. "Now we realize that's where they'd all been going — into the octopus's tummy!"
The crafty fellow was eventually released into the bay.
An octopus usually forages at night then retreats to its den to eat at leisure. It kills its prey (crabs are a favorite food) with venom secreted from its salivary glands, then cracks the shell with its sharp beak. It can also drill a hole in the snail's shell with its radula (toothlike structure) and inject a chemical that separates the snail's flesh from its shell. An octopus deposits empty shells outside its den in a pile – commonly called an "octopus's garden."
Red octopus are common in their range. However, as with other sea life, pollution, overfishing and habitat destruction pose serious threats to cephalopods.
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