Saw an amazing Octopus at the aquarium!!!

Joined
Jan 6, 2003
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476
Hey, iv been at these forums for a while now...but thought i'd come back real quick to post this up. I just went to the aquarium today. I live in New Jersey and we went to the New Jersey State Aquarium located in Camden. Its not the best aquarium in the world, but it has enough site seeing. Iv been to that aquarium like...4 times previous before, and before...they didn't keep any octopuses much. The last time I saw a real one in person at that aquarium, was when I was younger and they kept a very, very small one. However, it was hidden in the rocks and barely came out. This was a new experience and I was thrilled...

Since im obsessed with cephalopods and mostly Octopus themselves, I managed toi finally see one there located in a somewhat big tank against the wall with fake plastic coral designs around the tank glass. As soon as I layed my eyes across the room, I saw loads and loads of people all cuddled around the tank flashing imnages left and right...and I took a peek at what they were looking at, and it was a very large Octopus glued to the tanks glass with its sucker discs attached to it. It wasn incredible to watch. I stayed there for about 15 minutes straight just watching it all day. I took about 6 photo's of it and I hope yo scan them in soon. Im not sure what species of Octopus it was, but it looked like an O. Vulgaris to me. It's tentacles were about 2 and half to 3 feet long stretched out with nice big webbing between its arms...and a mantle that was about 10 inches long. The mantle and eyes were spiked and had texture on it because it was surrounded by rocks and it had a blended shade. It stayed the color red the whole time and as it got closer to us, it flashed lighter red because it was lighter in its area. The whole time it stayed glued to the glass with its mouth facing us most of the time...and it would rise upwards till we couldn't see it much, and then it would fall downwards again and glue to the glass. Sometimes it would let loose and we would get to look at it with its tentacles lowered and the mantle and eyes visible. It was so cute and it just stared at us the whole time.

The tank had about 4 starfishes at the bottom. The octopus...despite its size, didn
t have a whole LOT of room to crawl around. It was a very big one and I loved it so much. The walls behind the octopus were covered with grayish and brownish rocks. The tank was mostly dark, and the octopus was red. It looked soo healthy and so social. I couldn't believe how un-shy it was towards everyone. Very curious octopus. Many of the people were very thrilled also and never knew that an octopus looked the way it did. They made some interesting and very un-educated comments, but what can I say? lol. I helped all of them out and explained a lot of questions and points. I could tell that it was a female Octopus as well since it did not have any sucker discs overly larger than the rest. It was great experience to actually see one again in real life. There absoluetly beautiful animals and very incredible to watch in the water. I'll be scanning in some images as soon as I can :smile:
 
Here's some photos of that octopus at the aquarium that I took! Tell me what you guys think of it...


Octopus1.jpg

Octopus2.jpg

Octopus3.jpg

Octopus4.jpg
 
That actually looks like GPO87's namesake there - the giant Pacific octopus! They've been turning-up in aquariums nationally more and more over the last decade or so, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if Camden got one too. It certainly looks too big to be o. vulgaris! Great pics, Armstrong!
 
Colin said:
Looks like it is quite a beast :smile: Nowhere local to me has a GPO...

Probably so, but we North Americans have to do something to compensate for our cuttlefish envy! You lucky devils!
 
erich orser said:
Probably so, but we North Americans have to do something to compensate for our cuttlefish envy! You lucky devils!

Yeah compensation.... hmmmm.... need to get my own GPO :wink:
 
ThanX for all the complimengs!

To be honest here, on the website of of this aquarium, it said that this octopus was a common atlantic Octopus..so it had to be an O. Vulgaris. But, the octopus looked a lot smaller in person. I just took really, really close up shots of this octopus. And it just would never go away or hide from us, it was as close as it could get. I loved watching it. At the end of the day, I came back again just to see it. I wish I could have taken it home, cuz it was just incredible and I loved it...loved how it moved. It just kept posing for me. Iv only seen 2 very, very small Octopuses in real life...in my life, lol at the aquarium..but like I said, they were hiding and couldn't be seen at all much. This one was sooo social and just kept sticking itself to the glass everytime people took pictures. It stared at us with its eyes and it looked so happy and comfortable to be in there. It also moved and looked so gentle and shy, but it wasn't shy at all. Im totally going back there soon to take more pictuyres of this neat octopus. It's the BEST exhibit they have at the aquarium, cuz camden Aquarium kinda sucks compared to the other aquariums...but considering that they had this very big octopis displayed, I would raise some points just for that cuz I could watch this octopus alll day long if I wanted to. I couldnt take my eyes off of this animal.
 
Ah, it's a perspective thing, then. Particularly the shot with the child in it, that octopus looks about six feet across!
 
Stunning pictures there Armstrong, and thanks for posting them. Sounds like you had quite a hypnotic and enjoyable time.

Jealous here.
 
Ya, thats just a flash cuz I used a real cheap throw-away camera. In aquariums, its best to use digital cameras or else the flash will reflect off the glass walls of an aquarium. Luckily, the Octopus photo's I shot came out 10 times better than I expected.

But believe it or not, in person...if you see this octopus in this aquarium, its a LOT smaller than it looks in these pictures. When its arms stretched out, its tentacles looked about 2 and half feet long. When it wasn't, it was about 2 feet or a foot and half. It wasn't as big and huge as it looks in the photograph. I could have holded this animal in my arms easily. Its mantle also looked sooo much smaller than the pictures. It was about 10 inches or smaller. I thought it was an O. Vulgaris, but according to another website that gives info about this one in the aquarium...its actually a giant pacific octopus not fully grown yet. Its possible though. I just loved it so much. I could have stayed there till it closed and sat there all day long. It was soo active and friendly towards everyone and looked at everybody right in the eye. Of course though, the only thing human like about Octopus besides there curiosity and loyalty is there eyes because they can see just like we can, except in black and white. If you keep them in captivity, they stay loyal to you and treat you like the pet owner which im sure many of you in here know already. I just adored this Octopus very much and was so happy that it wasn't shy not bit. I could tell it just wanted to touch us or something, lol...it stayed glued to the glass for the most part with its suction cups. Such a beautiful animal to watch.
 

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