Question about Arm Regeneration and Octopus Growth

DrBatty

GPO
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Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Messages
148
Hi all, some of you may remember me from questioning the ID of my A. Aculeatus earlier this month....I have an interesting question for you physiology/biology experts out there.
When I got Beaker, he had 6 1/2 arms. This was several months ago. He is nearly finished regenerating the arms he lost, and when his arms slowed their growing, that's when I started noticing changes of traits and size in his body as a whole.
Now, I by no means claim to be a biology expert, but I do know that each cell in an octopus carries a blueprint for the makeup of their entire bodies [which obviously helps assign and reassign cells when regenerating]. I am wondering.....if the cells are busy rebuilding something that was lost that needs to exist....that they are possibly incapable of carrying on the "normal" maturing that would be expected of a healthy, whole octopus.
Is it possible that when octos are regenerating arms, growth will stunt in the rest of the body?
I have tried to find research on this, but am falling way short. Anyone have any pearls of wisdom on this? I am stumped, but fascinated....
 
age? water quality? eating habits?

dunno, just throwing out things that came to my mind....

i would imagine to regrow a limb, thered have to be an uptick in intake for all the nutrients and proteins needed... maybe they slow the regneration down if there isnt an overabundance of food....

:hmm:
 
I think it's a great question, and I have some guesses but absolutely no facts... if I have time in the next day or two, I may toss out some hand-waving guesses, but I'm much more curious if anyone's studied this and can provide some input that has actual facts involved!
 
from what i can tell his overall growth did slow while regenerating the arms but as soon as they were of substantial size he started growing rapidly again. now his mantle is around 3 inches and legs (all 8) about 6 inches long
 

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