![blue-ringed octopus blue-ringed octopus](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/blue-ringed-octopus-deadly-displays-its-warning-colours-tropical-coral-reef-70693571.jpg)
The small octopuses are common in tropical and subtropical coral reefs and tide pools of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, ranging from southern Japan to Australia. In order to escape predators, an octopus can squirt black ink into the water, allowing the octopus to escape. The blue-ringed octopus is an extremely venomous animal known for the bright, iridescent blue rings it displays when threatened. The den protects the octopus from predators (like moray eels) and provides a place to lay eggs and care for them (a mother octopus doesn't eat during the entire 1 to 2 months she is caring for her eggs). It piles rocks to block the front of its den. Like other octopuses, it lives in dens, spaces under rocks, crevices on the sea floor, or holes it digs under large rocks. Protection: The Blue Ring Octopus also defends itself using its poisons. The poison is a neurotoxin (maculotoxin) that is strong enough to kill a human being. It hides in the reef, then catches prey with its arms, bites it with its tough beak, and kills it by delivering a poison in the saliva. Like all octopuses, if an arm is lost, it can be regenerated.ĭiet: The Blue Ring Octopus hunts during the day. It is only about 8 in (20 cm) with the tentacles spread wide. It has a life span of about 1 1/2 years.Īnatomy: The Blue Ring Octopus has distinctive blue rings on its body and on its eight arms. This small mollusk lives in warm, shallow reefs off the coast of Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The Blue Ring Octopus, Hapalochlaena lunulata, is the most venomous octopus. Our subscribers' grade-level estimate for this page: Today's featured page: China/Chinese Activities
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