Hey,

There's a lttle guy they're calling "Henry." Check out the article here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080303/sc_afp/sciencebritainanimalhexapusoffbeat_08030 3184235).

Interesting.

On Cephbase I'm sure I remember reading about several O. briareus that were born with more or less than 8 arms, captions under photographs.

Interesting...and I like the bit about it being caught inside a lobster pot. Henry's nothing if not ambitious.

Clem

Clem,
It is my guess that the little guys go into the crab and lobster traps for the bait rather than the catch. Trapper (my original Merc) was caught in a stone crab trap and I remember Nancy posting a note about a biologist that fed octos chicken necks. Just an anicdotal theory of course.

one of my first octos was a briareus - she was a pentapus ;)

I think the majority of the octopuses Ive kept were missing an arm or two. But they were obviously lost from an injury.

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Here's the pics I was talking about.

http://www.cephbase.org/imgdb/images/Cb0066.jpg
10 armed briareus
http://www.cephbase.org/imgdb/images/Cb0065.jpg
birth defect 2 tips on one arm

Another good subject for our post-docs. Maybe it could be combined with nutrition :sagrin:. I remember Kat posting some kind of birth defects in the squid she was collecting for her thesis.

Did anyone else think about that Ray Harryhausen movie where the six legged octo attacks SF when they saw this?

Just because you are 2 arms short doesn't make you less of a Pus.

Clem,
It is my guess that the little guys go into the crab and lobster traps for the bait rather than the catch. Trapper (my original Merc) was caught in a stone crab trap and I remember Nancy posting a note about a biologist that fed octos chicken necks. Just an anicdotal theory of course.

Nope they're after the rock lobsters. Octos are a common bycatch in the Rock Lobster fishery in New Zealand and the fishers :mad:HATE:mad: them as what they pull up looks promising until they see the octopus and realise that all the lobsters will just be shells. In the year 01/10/06-30/09/07 approximately fifty three and a half tonnes of octos were pulled up by fishers who were targetting rock lobsters.

On an unrelated note I recently saw a photo of an antarctic octopus that appeared to have only seven arms. It didn't look damaged although it's possible one of them could have been tucked underneath but the way it had been placed for the photo makes me think that wouldn't be the case

Six-Legged Octopus Discovered at English Aquarium (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/6-0&fd=R&url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,334853,00.html&cid=0&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)
FOXNews - Mar 4, 2008
That's what zookeepers at the Blackpool Sea Life Centre in northern England call their six-legged octopus, who was fished out of the Irish Sea off Wales ...


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/6-0&fd=R&url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,334853,00.html&cid=0&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)


Welcome for octopus with six legs (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7-0&fd=R&url=http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/10263/Welcome_for_octopus_with_six_legs.html&cid=1138908628&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)
Fish Update, UK - Mar 6, 2008
... Duckhouse said: "We've scoured the internet and talked to lots of other aquariums and no-one has ever heard of another case of a six-legged octopus. ...
"Free Henry" say animal campaigners (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7-1&fd=R&url=http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Free-Henry-say-animal-campaigners.3854058.jp&cid=1138908628&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ) Blackpool Gazette
BREAKING NEWS - Free Henry the Hexapus! (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7-2&fd=R&url=http://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/BREAKING-NEWS--Free-Henry.3852726.jp&cid=1138908628&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ) North Wales Chronicle
all 4 news articles (http://news.google.com/news?tab=vn&ie=ISO-8859-1&lr=&hl=en&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-19%2CGGLG%3Aen&ncl=1138908628)


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7-0&fd=R&url=http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/10263/Welcome_for_octopus_with_six_legs.html&cid=1138908628&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)


CNN International (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8i-0&fd=R&url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/04/octopus.uk/&cid=0&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)
World's first six-legged octopus discovered (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8-0&fd=R&url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/04/octopus.uk/&cid=0&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)
CNN International - Mar 4, 2008
By CNN's Saeed Ahmed (CNN) -- English marine experts have laid their hands on an octopus that's missing two of its own: a six-limbed creature that they have ...


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8-0&fd=R&url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/04/octopus.uk/&cid=0&ei=O3bSR6LtBJGoygTM6LHCCQ)

Nice time to go on vacation, Octobot!