Cajunman said:Okay, wait a minute here?
This Autophagy thing is a bit odd.
Am i understanding this correctly?
Not only will an octo eat it's self, but the act of eating it's self is
contagious to other octo's?
You are indeed understanding correctly. This is a contagious disease. the jury is still out concerning the cause but there is some suggestion that it is (in octopus at least) a prion (mad cow disease is caused by a prion), which is smaller than a virus and can sit dormant in cells (perhaps in the DNA) until something triggers it. Common triggers can be stress, poor husbandry.............or ..................sometimes the trigger isn't identified.
I'm assuming that the prions (or whatever!) can survive in aquascaping etc as without major sterilization of tank and equipment the next octi resident will get it too.
J