Mimic Octopus Size report
The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) is a magical sea creature and a top camouflage master in nature. This very soft-bodied aquatic creature can change color and shape at will, and its normal body color is brown with spots. Mimic octopuses are distributed worldwide and can simulate various environments and other marine life, such as flounder and sea snakes.
The body of the mimic octopus has tens of thousands of color bags controlled by a complex muscle network. The bag contains pigments, and various colors are expressed by pigments. By relaxing or contracting the color bag, the mimic octopus can make itself consistent with any background color and pattern in less than a second.
Mimic octopuses usually live in estuary waters. There are many shellfish, shrimps, and crabs in this water area that mimetic octopuses like to eat, and foragers often visit large sharks and barracudas. Mimic octopuses can change their color and shape and imitate other animals' movements to avoid the enemy's predation. Are you also interested in how long the mimic octopus can grow and how they live? Let's learn more about these creatures in the following post.
Mimic Octopus Size And Description
The mimic octopus was not discovered and identified until 1998 in the estuary waters of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The clever creature usually only grows to 60 cm long and has black and white stripes all over its body. Like other octopuses, mimic octopuses have eight tentacles; they have colored packets called chromatophores on their skin, which are controlled by a complex network of muscles. Mimic octopuses have no bones or spines and no venom like blue-ringed octopuses, so they often imitate venomous sea snakes and flounder to avoid bad luck. At the bottom of the sea, they can easily turn into any object, such as coral and aquatic plants. The mimic octopus has high intelligence like other members of the octopus family.
Average Size of Mimic Octopus
The mimic octopus is a medium-sized octopus with a body length of about 0.6-0.7 meters after adulthood. The mantle length is about 5-6 centimeters and the weight of 2-9 kilograms. This species usually lives in shallow sea areas, especially in estuary waters, because food resources are the most abundant in such areas. The typical lifespan of the Mimic Octopus is between 9 months and 2 years.
Quick Facts | |
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Scientific name | Thaumoctopus mimicus |
Average Length | 0.6-0.7 m |
Average Weight | 2-9 kg |
Lifespan | 9 months to 2 years |
Conclusion
In order to hide their whereabouts and survive in the wild kingdom, many animals have mastered the stunt of changing color. In Marvel movies, myths, and other sci-fi novels or movies, characters that can deform and become invisible are not always stunning. However, the change process of the mimic octopuses in the ocean is even more bizarre than the visual effects in novels and movies. There is also a kind of octopus that looks exactly like a mimic octopus but does not have the super high biomimicry ability of a mimic octopus. It is called Wonderpus. The patterns on their bodies are very similar to those of the mimic octopus, only in brown.