Can anyone explain this behavior

[Goodwin9]

Meet my newest octopus, Markus. Markus arrive by air this morning from SWF.com. Can't tell exactly what species he is. He doen't appear to have the eye spot that Clyde has.

I was watching him move around in his half of the tank when he went after a hermit walking on the bottom. I grabbed the camera and shot what happened afterwards. First reminded me of a dog howling. Have never seen this with my other two octopi, so I am wondering if anyone out there might have seen theirs do similar.

Click on the image to view the video

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[main_board]

Haven't a clue about the behaviour. The only thing I can think of in this state is maybe it was using its mantle to pump something somewhere. I dunno, but you've got a beautiful octopus there. Congrats!

Cheers!

 

[corw314]

I call that the conehead. I had several that would do that behavior, usually if they were hunting, or if they weren't sure of if I was friend or foe.

 

[Nancy]

Beautiful octopus! Interesting white stripe he has there at the end.

I've seen other octopuses make the conehead shape, but never move like yours does!

I'll add Markus (or is it Marcus, like in the video title?) to the List of Our Octopuses! Welcome to Markus!

Nancy

 

[monty]

I thought it looked like it could be a camoflauge trick, like he was pretending to be a plant bobbing in the current...

 

[Brock Fluharty]

I thought he looked like a hermit crab shell pointed upwards.