Octopus sex

[Neogonodactylus]

It is not the best quality video I have ever shot, but this morning I videotaped a pair of Octopus chierchiae mating and you can clearly see the male's hectocotylus searching and eventually penetrating the female's mantle cavity. I'm not sure how many times this has been filmed, but I'm pretty sure in never has been recorded in O. cheirchiae. And before you are too critical of the video quality, remember that these animals are the size of a quarter. Her is the YouTube address for the clip.

Roy

 

[Nancy]

The quality is amazingly good considering the size of these little octopuses!

Are you hopeful that you'll actually be able to raise another generation of O. chierchiae?

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Knowing that I blew a terrific set of shots where my mercs were mating and you could see the male's shoulder fill with spermataphores, I am amazed at the quality of the clip. I DO have a complaint about the video, the same one I voiced about Crissy's - IT IS TOO SHORT - but then I could watch for hours.

 

[Neogonodactylus]

O.K., I've loaded a longer clip on YouTube. I've never seen a hectocotylized arm used like a phallus!

Roy

 

[DWhatley]

MUCH better.

You have mentioned that the mercs in the lab show a violent mating but in my aquarium the two matings I was able to observe were not at all violent but different again from this one. The female was inside a large barnacle and the male blocked the entrance after hanging around for a few days. When he mated, I was able to see the shoulder swell and his probing in the shell but could not view the female. Other than blocking the exit, and putting his hectocotylus inside the shell to reach the female, there was not touching of bodies.

 

[ckeiser]

Has anyone here observed post-copulatory cannibalism by female octopuses in captivity?

 

[DWhatley]

Tonmo members have not had much success putting multiples in a single aquarium but the attempts have been very limited. The only matings I can recall are dwarf sibblings and all of those in the last few years have been mercatoris with the exception of Roy's chierchiae. Roy and Thales managed to locate a male and female that did pair but I believe they are housed separately except for mating. I don't know if the video is a sibbling match or if they have located other candidates. Roy has also mated blue rings in the lab but I believe these are also kept separated except for brief mating introductions. The mercatoris females definitely do not cannibalize the males but the young are not prone to attacking each other either (unlike briareus).

There have been no journals of larger nonsibbling octopuses successfully kept together or intruduced for mating. Roy might give some insite about what they have accomplished in the lab but there has not been a successful attempt jounaled here. Zyan Silver did have a pair of sibbling bimacs to mate but he went off to college and we have never had reports back about the status of the sibblings housed together other than a few photos of a mating.

 

[Neogonodactylus]

We have reported post-mating cannibalism in Hapalochlaena lunulata.

Roy