Octopi usually have a life span of 3-4 years, but some
smaller octopi have a life span of only 6 months. The male dies within a few
days of mating, and the female dies after the eggs have hatched.
A
common octopus’s eggs are usually teardrop or oval shaped and the size of a
grain of rice. There are usually over a thousand of them, but only a couple of
the eggs will survive; the rest will probably be eaten or lost. The female
sticks them to the side of her cave where they hatch.
When the baby octopi hatch, they are literally
flea-sized versions of their parents and can change color. Instead of hiding in
rocks or crevices and avoiding sunlight like adult octopi, they enjoy the
sunlight and float on the open ocean. Once they are older, they hide in rocks and
crevices, only coming out to hunt, or, for the males, find a mate. They will
inhabit a nest for a long period of time.
How they mate is not really known, but after
they mate, the female finds a den in which to lay her eggs. She closes the
entrance to the cave with rocks and guards the eggs, blowing water around them
to keep the fungus and small fish who want to eat the eggs away. She never
comes out to eat and guards the eggs until she dies.
After
the male mates, before he dies, he may crawl onto the beach. As his brain and
his other organs start to deteriorate, he behaves strangely, crawling up and
down the beach in a seemingly absentminded manner. The males will stop eating,
lose weight, and develop white sores. At this stage, they are very vulnerable
to predators, including slow moving sharks and killer whales.
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| Baby Octopi. Photo courtesy of www.zooborns.com |
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