Unlike the past couple of days, I didn’t see any dramatic hunting or eating behaviour today, but I did have a chance to spend some quality time with a very active mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus).

In case you’re not familiar with them, these talented octopuses are known for their ability to mimic other animals, perhaps as a means of camouflage or self-defence. In any case, they have an incredible repertoire, and are a perennial favourite among divers visiting Lembeh.

If you visit Lembeh and are fortunate enough to see one of these incredible cephalopods, please keep in mind that they are bottom dwellers…meaning that they most likely don’t enjoy being thrown into the water column, where they’re out of their element and vulnerable to predators.

Think of it this way: If some strange being came down to earth, picked you up, and repeatedly threw you into the air to take pictures of you…I doubt you’d be too happy about it.

Yesterday…female hairy frogfish eating male hairy frogfish.

Today…octopus in a shell capturing and eating a crab.

The crab was alive and struggling, but soon after I took this photo, the octopus wrapped its mantle over the crab and devoured the crunchy treat.

This is what’s left of a seven-arm octopus (Haliphron atlanticus). We came across a couple of these while in Ogasawara.

Seven-arm octopuses are the largest known octopus species, allegedly growing up to something like four metres in length and weighing 75kg! The ones we saw were from significantly smaller animals, as you can tell from this photo of my friend Tomoko-san photographing the floating blob:

Despite the common name, this octopus has eight arms, just like all other octopuses. The “seven-arm” name derives from the fact that the mating arm is coiled away and obscured from view in males…often giving it the appearance of having one less arm than it should.

In case you’re wondering, the octopus was slimy, and left behind a sticky film/ residue if you touched it (Of course…I had to touch it!). Otherwise, it was gelatinous and slippery, similar to what the bell of a large jellyfish feels like (Yes, I’ve touched those too).

I’m not sure if anyone knows for certain, but I suspect the bits we found floating at the surface were leftovers from sperm whale meals, or maybe from other deep-diving whales. Perhaps these octopuses don’t taste very good, and the whales spit them out? (No, I didn’t taste one).

Note: Incidentally, the plural of octopus is octopuses, not octopi. The word derives from Greek (okto+pous), not Latin, so the Latin plural form (ending in “i”) isn’t correct. Octopodes is ok too, but no one uses this word.

The internet went down last night, so I wasn’t able to update my blog, even though I was ready…with pictures and stories galore!

In any case, the connection is a bit slow…at least by comparison to the speeds I get at home, so I’m probably not going to be updating every day as originally planned, but I’ll do my best in any case.

The big group from the US left yesterday, which meant the only divers for the day (until Aey and Mean from FiNS Magazine arrived) were me and Andy Chung, who’s here from Denver, Colorado.

Andy’s been a terrific dive buddy. It’s his first time in Indonesia, his first time with an underwater housing, his first time muck diving, his first time seeing most of the critters here…so basically, he gets excited easily.

Actually, after a few dives, Andy came up with what is perhaps the simplest and most descriptive definition of muck diving I’ve ever come across.

As he put it: Muck diving is looking for: “crazy stuff sticking its head out of the sand.” Accurate, no?

On that note, here’s a photo from an evening muck dive with Andy…two octopuses in a bellicose mood, wrangling over bragging rights to a glass bottle. The one on the right ended up clobbering the one on the left.

Off to the next dive…