Meet Mory, the Cuttlefish

If you’re an octopus fan, our guess is you’ll adore its close relative, the noble cuttlefish. These two magnificent beings belong to the family of mollusks and have many characteristics in common.

One of these characteristics is their amazing ability to hide in plain sight by changing their color and skin patterns. Both cephalopods are equipped with pigment-containing cells known as chromatophores which are responsible for the rapid change of color of their skin.

When we came across Mory, the playful cuttlefish introduced in this video, we thought it would be fun to stimulate one of our octopuses with a game of hide and seek.

Safe Play

Rudy, the young octopus in today’s video, is very curious and playful, the perfect candidate.

After feeding him a big lunch, we were certain we would not be in any way threatening the safety of the smaller cuttlefish. We were of course ready to intervene if at any point they decided to play rough. All we needed to do next was bring these two together and watch the magic happen. Luckily, this wasn’t the case and these two little guys actually seemed to enjoy the time they spent together.

Setting Up the Playground

We set up an observation tank with many hiding spots, lots of different colors and various textures. Both Rudy and Mory loved this new playground as it gave them a lot of camouflage options. They swam around the tank excitedly, exploring its contents and improving their camouflage as they became more and more familiar with them.

A rich environment is most vital for the well-being of the octopus and this is the reason why we, here at the OctolabTV facilities, try to offer a variety of stimulants to our friends and keep them as engaged as they would be out in the ocean.