Do octos shed the ends of their suckers?

[joshsaul]

I recently noticed small disc shaped things floating around in my tank. They look just like the skin that would cover the end of my octos suckers, they are of varying sizes as well. They are not thick at all, and look like they came off naturally.

Does anyone know what they are? Is this a normal thing for an octo?

If they are not normal, any idea what causes the octo to shed like this?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Nancy]

Hi Josh,

From what I've read - yes they do shed in the way you described, and yes, this is normal.

So one less thing to worry about!

Nancy

 

[Colin]

Hi Josh,
Nancy is totally right but I just wanted to add that all those little sucker covers can be a nuisance in your filter or skimmer so it is best to have some sort of pre-filter before the actual filter media. They just block it up so quick once they are big. There always are sucker discs floating about!

There is a small video of an octopus doing just that in this site... Its in the video gallery

C