FEEDING! The chambered Nautilus is a mollusk, related to the octopus, squid, clam and snail. A nautilus, along with the cuttlefish, squid, and octopus, are all cephalopods, meaning “head-foot,” so named because the feet (tentacles) are attached to the head.
The nautilus is the only cephalopod that has a fully developed shell for protection. The nautilus has more than 90 suckerless tentacles. Grooves and ridges on the tentacles are used to grip prey and deliver food to a crushing, parrot-like beak. Most of the time the Nautilus is in stock in the #Heevis Store in Eindhoven.
Rosenblum explains: ’If you spot an octopus and offer it a shell, depending on its living situation and mood, it may take it and move from its old container to your offered shell. But you better bring a good shell - they’re picky. If they don’t like what you’ve offered, they may toss it aside and stay hunkered down in their current dwelling.’
They usually prefer coconut husks, but hey, whatev’.
They are able to fit completely inside, but can also spread their arms and walk on the see floor with the shell.
Eight arms, hundreds of disguises. The mimic octopus shifts shape and color to imitate more intimidating animals–fanning arms out like a lethal lionfish or slithering like a sea snake.
Unusually for salamanders, hellbenders engage in external fertilisation. Male hellbenders will seek out the perfect flat rock under which to dig a nesting burrow, and will defend it viciously from other males. When a female approaches, the male will coax her inside to lay her eggs, which he will then fertilize. A single female can lay up to 200 eggs, connected by five cords, and one male’s burrow can contain almost 2000 eggs at once. The male will guard the eggs in the two or three months it takes them to hatch, standing over them and rocking his body and undulating his skin folds to keep water flowing over his clutch, keeping them oxygenated. When the larvae hatch, they are all but limbless and subsist on a large yolk sack for their first few months of life.
Sadly, the larvae have little chance of making it to adulthood. Aside from the adult hellbenders’ tendency towards cannibalism, hellbender larvae are particularly vulnerable to pollution and rising silt levels. Some zoos, such as the Toledo Zoo, are now raising hellbenders until they are about a year old before releasing them to the wild, greatly increasing their chance of survival.
Happy Halloween from our little sea monster! The animal training department let us borrow their festive decorations, and it was kind of the greatest thing in the whole entire world. Still not sure if this was more enriching for the octopus or the aquarists!!
Some species of crabs have a pair of paddle-shaped rearmost legs that allow them to swim through the water instead of being limited to walking along the ocean floor.
