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A Sober Question But One I Must Address. Inking upon Death?

Green_Tree

O. vulgaris
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Its a sober subject but may be coming up soon

Assuming a fairly peaceful undisturbed passing away. Do octopi involuntarily ink when they die? This is my first and i wanted to be prepared for the contingency of it passing.
 
It may be a sober question, but one that is worth asking. One problem in answering this is "cause and effect". I frequently receive octopus that have been shipped and they arrive with a bag full of inky water and a dead octopus. Which came first, the ink or a dead octopus? Usually it is impossible to tell. I have had a few octopus (O. bocki, O. wolfi, A. abaculas, A. aculeatus and O. bimaculoides that I remember) that inked in tanks when they died. It was usually not an active inking - the ink just oozed out into a pool. However, these were the exceptions. I have also had H. lunulata release a bit of ink and some TTX when they died. Twice coming in contact with water that contained a dead H. lunulata I experienced mild neurological symptoms.

Roy
 
Interesting Roy, since I have never had one to ink on death (albeit the numbers are way smaller and almost all of mine have died at an old age). Can you recall if the ones that inked were fresh from the wild (obviously the ones in that bag were). One of the things we have wondered about with some of ours that would ink for no apparent reason was the possibility of ink build up that needed releasing. We have also wondered if time in a aquarium (or possibly age) reduces the amount of ink they store so I am putting the two thoughts together to wonder if inking at death is related to amount available.
 
I have had to euthanize several different species before because of their deteriorating conditions during senescence and in nearly every case, the ceph inked right before all movement stopped and death was confirmed. In these cases, I attributed these behaviors to a normal excitement phase during this process as each of the animals all inked at approximately the same time during euthanasia. Fishes show an excitement phase during euthanasia and comparing the results between cephs and fish led me to my conclusions. Hard to say how it happens under natural mortality conditions. I have usually seen the inking occur after death and as Roy said, it was an oozing that I saw as well. Interesting question.

Greg
 
Neogonodactylus;167678 said:
It may be a sober question, but one that is worth asking. ...... It was usually not an active inking - the ink just oozed out into a pool. ......
Again, not to be macabre, but I wonder to what degree this relates to item 4 in the human condition -- ref. this link.
 
I had a similar thought Tony but I have seen several expire (rather than finding them dead) and never saw the ink spill that Roy mentioned. Since others HAVE seen it, the potiential absence of ink in senescent animals thought crossed my mind but Greg's mention of seeing a release during euthanization of senescing animals may negate the thought.
 
Its funny because I was having the same thought as Tony and D when I began this thread. It was just that knowledge that sparked the idea in my head since i was worried about preparing for the end.
 

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