Biological Strategy: Octopus
Octopuses are considered very clever mollusks. With eight arms and well developed eyes, they use ingenious behavior strategies as camouflage and the use of “tools” to protect themselves.
They are invertebrate animals that belong to the mollusk group. Therefore, they have a totally soft body with only one rigid structure: a pair of powerful beak-shaped jaws in the oral cavity. They have eight suction cup arms that they use for locomotion and food capture. They swim through jet propulsion, expelling water through their siphon, but prefer to crawl on the substrate around where they live. Octopuses are animals with an incredible capacity of camouflage, they can change color and texture of their skin. It has three hearts, one pumping blood to its body, and the other two to the gills. They are extremely intelligent animals, with the ability to learn and use tools for playing.
Common octopus - Octopus americanus
This species has a global distribution and can be found in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Octopuses are active predators, feeding mainly on crustaceans and other mollusks, but they can also eat small fish. They can reach a maximum size of 1.4 m and their life span revolves around 12 to 24 months. It has great economic importance, as it is one of the most consumed marine animals in several countries, especially in Asian countries. They are semelparous animals: the female, when spawning, takes care of the eggs, protecting, cleaning and oxygenating them until they hatch, then she becomes very weak and ends up dying.
Choco chip sea star - Protoreaster nodosus
Species of tropical environment that inhabits the Indian and Pacific Oceans, lives associated with the sea bottom, in sandy, muddy, rocky substrates, and can also be found in coral reefs. It feeds preferentially on corals, sea sponges and sea urchins, but it can also feed on algae, biofilms and other dead animals. It reaches a maximum size of 20 cm, and has black bumps on its body used to chase away predators, due to its menacing appearance. It is a species that indicates the quality of reefs.