Over on the TONMO forums, an aquarist has been documenting the life of his octopus, “Legs”. Legs was wild caught when only the size of a fingernail, and raised to healthy, thriving adulthood — with lots and lots of photos.
Legs just recently died, unfortunately, which is the sad reality of getting to know most cephalopods — they tend to be very short-lived creatures, many living for only a year. “The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, Legs.”
Blade Runner.
Nice tribute.
For animals that die after mating or after the laying of the eggs, like some Octopi, do they always die as quickly even if they do not mate or lay eggs? Why wouldn’t the life of Legs be extended in captivity if the life is shortened by a biological clock that never started ticking?
I could never keep one, just for that reason. I remember a user there named Nancy kept a rather large specimen she called Ollie, and that the octopus would wave to her and even pull apart her cleaning magnet in the middle of the night just to get her attention. That’s too much to lose in such a short span of time.
RIP Legs.
*clenched tentacle salute*
Amen brother. *raises water bottle*
That was remarkably moving. What a lovely animal, and great documentation by CaptFish.
I just noticed that someone over at Sciencemag News is a fan of cephalopods. Check out their broken link error page ;)
Years ago, I could never have conceived of having anything like an emotional attachment to animals as “alien” as octopi. Only kitties and puppies, and things like that. But today, I find it sad to hear about a creature like Legs dying.
I credit the change to many years of reading good popular science accounts of the natural world (and evolution). Animals that used to just scare me or provoke a disgust reaction (snakes, most arthropods including insects) I now see as compelling and . . .I don’t know the right word. . .dignified? . . . in a way I never did before.
Slowly soaking up knowledge about the ancestral connections we share with all life has made me appreciate organisms for what they are, no matter how alien they may seem. I don’t understand the horror some people have of thinking about their relationship to other primates, or other “beasts.” I find it majestic, and (again, I’m not sure of the right word) ennobling, and humbling. They’re part of the family, even if they make their livings in strange or “repulsive” ways.
I don’t freak out when a big bug gets in my house anymore; I put her outside. I don’t kill spiders anymore, I let them weave their webs in the corner and take care of the flies while I contemplate how cool they are. Not to be overly maudlin, but I can feel . . something anyway . . .for Legs and find her death a bit sad.
Thanks to people like PZ, Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, and others for broadening my knowledge and appreciation of the natural world.
Nice Blade Runner reference.
*clenched tentacle salute*
“Morphology? Longevity? Incept dates?”
“Don’t know, I don’t know such stuff. I just do eyes, j-j-just eyes…just genetic design, just eyes.”
He couldn’t give him more life, FAHCKER.
…and from the dairy-invested, ground and cooked bovine muscle tissue patty department, here is Kraken!
@Josh: Hey, yeah. You know, I think some of that is rubbing off on me too. Thanks for putting into words! :)
Nice, Josh, OSG. You remind me that you and I share a grandmother in common with Legs. Cousins, we are, literally.
I think I can empathise with most animals and feel a common bond; dandelions and other plants, not so much. On the other hand, I like to tease vegetarians that the carrots they eat raw are still alive even as they bite into them.
RIP.
What a fun and moving thread! And it’s good to know how to preserve an octopus body, just in case that will evee come in handy.
In Legs’s memory, a picture:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/04/25/funny-pictures-kraken/
@Johnnie:
That is because dandelions are objectively pure evil. I weeded those bastards out of my garden the other day – I was astonished to find their roots go down as much as two feet into the soil. Disgusting, sickly, anemic carrots-in-cheap-KMart-drag-looking roots but oh-so-cleverly evolved so as to make it easy to break off the plant and leave that root to fester. And spawn.
When I reflected on how I was unwittingly selecting for the hardier dandelion breeds, I shuddered. Then resolved to redouble my efforts to eradicate the demon weed.
Josh, OSG,
That’s… deep (ahem).
I shall refrain from commenting (if not alluding to) its analogic relevance to theism and atheism.
You’ll have to help me out here, John, cuz I’m not getting it. Probably because I’m tired. :)
Josh, theists weed out the weakest forms of atheists, and vice-versa.
(The analogy is somewhat flawed, though, because ideological ecology is more Lamarckian than Darwinian; the principle, I think, remains).
I had a rose-hair tarantula named Boo as a constant companion for 16 years. When she checked out, I pickled her.
So I guess I still have her. She just needs to be fed less often.
Aaw. Goodbye, Legs. Back when I had large aquariums, I always wanted an octopus, I was afraid of the heartbreak though. *Clenched Tentacle Salute*
Josh, OSG:
They are not. They’re pretty, they help maintain bee populations, the roots make for a good digestive tea, the young leaves are good in salad or lightly sauteed, the flowers can be made into wine and the unopened buds are very tasty when sauteed, alone or in a nice dandelion bud omelet.
Sigh, of course.But, like dandelions, they seem to break off those tenacious roots instead of pulling them up completely, leaving the Mooneys and De Doras to grow back ever stronger, infesting one’s entire lawn.
@ Caine:
Wow. I’m totally prepared to revise my estimation of dandelions if they’re that useful. You got any pointers on the wine thing, Caine?
Blade Runner with Breakfast! Awesome!
No need to ask the Aquarist “Did you get your precious photos?”
short lived things are what they are short lived . There are not many animals that one can keep which will out live us so there is a sadness which is built in. Last year I lost another wonderful dog and I planted her in her own spot. It is harder with those animals which show a recognition of us.
I have been watching a series of Black Widow spiders who have made a web nest in my ally for some years now mostly by may gate, seems to be lots of crickets there and I miss Her if I do not find her.
that they live so briefly makes it that much more beautiful and poignant all life
If you have ever seen Cytoplasmic streaming inside a plant cell you can never see plants the same way again.
I was told that a lot of weeds were plant pioneers that would sprout first in very inhospitable places like cracks in the street almost devoid of anything. our gardens are very abstracted places striped like new ground when compared to any prairie field or forest clearing or brush covered hillside. I have to watch myself when I do weeding as I may forget the hoe I brought with me and get down on my hands and knees and start playing in the dirt while instead of weeding
Josh:
Just that you don’t want my recipe, it’s from the 1700s. I finally worked it out well enough for modern standards. (It’s mostly a cleanliness kind of thing which has to be imposed. I have a bunch of old ‘Enquire Within type books.) There are about a gazillion sites though, if you search ‘how to make dandelion wine’. My recipe is very basic.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp has a variety of recipes. If you start searching, you’ll be surprised. Not only are there a lot of dandelion foodstuff recipes, but recipes for wine, beer, jelly and ‘coffee’. (Clean the roots, roast ’em, coffee.)
You would think the primate would know the difference between a male and female octopus, or a flaming transgender puss, you biologists have your works cut out for yourself, PZ.
Good luck.
To keep down the weeds, cover the soil with plants that you want. Leaving gaps is an open invititation for nature to do its tangled-bank thing.
We’re planting our own tangled bank of beans, nasturtiums, cucumber and squash. Worked great last year. No weeds grow because there’s two feet of vegetation covering every square inch of soil. And we can eat it. Yum.
I’ve…seen things…you humans wouldn’t believe…
Attack whales on fire off the shores of Tahiti…
I watched ‘sea’ beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Trench…
All those moments will be lost in time…like…tears in the ocean…
Time to die…
/sobbing
#23: Dandelions are obligate apomicts: they don’t reproduce sexually and don’t require the work of bees to move pollen around AFAIK*. The rest of that stuff (wine, useful roots, tasty above ground parts, pretty) is dead on, though. I like me some dandelion greens in a salad, too.
*I suppose I could look into this and report back later.
I have to wonder whether it would be possible to breed for longer-lived octopi…the only way I can think of would be to set up a large population, and don’t let them breed towards near the end of their normal breeding span. Then repeat for a number of generations, each time pushing back the time by a month or two.
It might be time-consuming, but for a race of longer-lived octopets I think it’d be worth it!
Josh @8 Lovely.
As long as we are quoting Blade Runner, this is my favorite:
“Ah, Chen. If only you could see what I have see with your eyes.”
Excellent thread. first one I have ever read through from beginning to end with enthusiasm.
@greymav
I was hoping there would be a way to change the behaviour of female octopodes to take care of the un-hatched eggs until they dies though, because either way, we have to blame DNA.
*die not dies.
Damn grammar.
So much for the stupik Huffpo thing about scientists not having any feelings or sentiment, for becoming aliens in their own world. If anything, they are closer to the world than those who relate too much with the old man in the sky.
Wow. I got completely sucked into that thread. What a cool pet.
People used to ask me what I got out of my snake. Because it wasn’t fluffy and warm, and didn’t look at me with loving adoration.
Snakes aren’t smart like octopi, but there’s so much you can learn about animals like that just by hanging around them and watching!
stupid! it should say “stupid”! *way to fluff yer first post, LT*
I finally got around to reading the Legs thread on my midnight meal break. Very moving. I had not considered getting emotionally attached to anything that lives in a tank since I was in my teens and my terrapin went into hibernation and never woke up, but I’m thinking about it now.
Wow, Thanks for the support everyone. Legs will be missed greatly.
Take what comfort you may from the fact that Dandelions are asexual, and that asexual species (metazoans at any rate), no matter how successful they might be at the moment, generally do not last very long (in evolutionary time, of course), nor often leave descendent lineages. They are but twigs on the great tree of life, that “flower” (ha!) brilliant and brief, only to fall away.
Unless, of course, they are Bdelloid rotifers. And if the dandylions go that way, then may god help us all!
The French, who gave us the word dandelion (dent de lion), have a warning for those who consume more than a little of the plant. That would be the origin of their current word for it, pissenlit. It is a renowned diuretic.
This time of year is the peak production period here for the accursed things. Fortunately in a month or so, they will go back to lurking and there will be no more mocking seed heads waiting for me to disperse them with the lawn mower. Unfortunately, the almost look-alike Cat’s Ears Hypochaeris radicata will then take over the role for the rest of the summer.
In any subset of our overall family tree, there’s always a few weeds. Can’t live with them and by now I’ve lived long enough to know I will never live without them.
Legs, you were so beautiful.
That was a wonderful story. RIP, Legs.
*clenched tentacle salute*
I enjoy dandelions. Yes. I’m *that* neighbor.
Just had the lawn mowed though. First time since winter.
*whistles*
@Josh
We had a large hunting spider that lived, somewhere, in our lounge and would come out and run around late in the evening even if the light was on and we were there. It must have grown to be 3″ across the legs at least. We simply avoided hurting it.
My attitude is ‘which would I rather have, the spider or the insects he must be eating? (probably silverfish).
I haven’t seen it in months, mind you I did completely redecorate apart from the carpet so the dust and disturbance probably drove it out.
I did see one study that found that house spiders caught and released outside invariably die, especially in winter. They are adapted to our houses and have no territory outside so are at risk from other spiders, birds, mantises etc or just being wet and cold.
Clean old webs by all means, but think about dealing with what they are eating if you get rid of the spider.
Peter #46,
I’ve been lurking here for a while, but this is my 2nd post (sneaking in from Bad Astronomy.) Anyway, I’ve decided I need to inflict my niece stories on you all, starting with the spider story (okay, one of the spider stories.)
She’s an 8 year old budding invertebrate zoologist. Last year, I heard a disturbing story that she had kissed a spider. I asked her about it, somewhat teasingly, expecting her to deny it. All she said was “But it was soooo cute!”
She also has great affection for cephalopods, and I’m sure she would be heart-broken to hear about Legs. RIP.