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Blue Ring Octopus
Species
Hapalochlaena lunulata and Hapalochlaena maculosa.
Description
It starts life the size of a pea and is fully grown at about the size of a golf ball.
They have a life span of approx. 2 years.
Carry enough poison to kill 26 adults within minutes.
Distribution:
Southern Western Australia, to southern Qld and northern
Tasmania
Camouflage:
The Blue Ring Octopus is not an aggressive animal and when disturbed it flattens out its body to hide and changes its body colour to blend into its surroundings.
Body: They are soft-bodied
animals, with a sack-like body and eight arms covered with suckers.
Reproduction:
The female lays approximately 50 eggs in late Autumn. She carries her eggs around under her arms. Once the eggs have hatched after 3 - 6 months, the female dies. The young octopus develop rapidly, mature and mate early the following Autumn. The males then die and the female broods the eggs.
General Information:
The bite might be painless, but this octopus injects a neuromuscular paralysing venom. The venom contains some maculotoxin, a poison more violent than any found on land animals. The nerve conduction is blocked and neuromuscular paralysis is followed by death. The victim might be saved if artificial respiration starts before marked cyanosis and hypotension develops. With a beak that can penetrate a wet-suit, they are one little cute creature to definitely look at BUT Don't touch. The blue-ringed octopus is the size of a golf ball but its poison is powerful enough to kill an adult human in minutes. There's no known antidote. The only treatment is hours of heart massage and artificial respiration until the poison has worked its way out of your system.
The venom contains tetrodotoxin, which blocks sodium channels and causes motor paralysis and occasionally respiratory failure. Though with fixed dilated pupils, the senses of the patients are often intact. The victims are aware but unable to respond.
Although the painless bite can kill an adult, injuries have only occurred when an octopus has been picked out of its pool and provoked or stepped on.
SYMPTOMS
The poison is not injected but is contained in the octopus's saliva, which comes from two glands each as big as its brain. Poison from the one is used on its main prey, crabs, and is relatively harmless to humans. Poison from the other gland serves as defence against predators. The blue-ringed octopus either secretes the poison in the vicinity of its prey, waits until it is immobile and then devours it, or it jumps out and envelops the prey in its 8 tentacles and bites it.
There are two species of blue-ringed octopus:
1. Hapalochlaena lunulata, which is the larger and grows up to 20cm (8 in) across its stretched tentacles.
2. Hapalochlaena maculosa, is small and more common, weighing a mere 28 grams (1 oz). They are found in the shallow coral and rock pools of Australia.
While resting, the Blue Ring Octopus is a pale brown to yellow
colour. The blue rings on its body only "light up" as a warning when
the animal feels threatened.
Don't pick one up - by the time you see the electric-blue rings, it's too late!
FIRST AID