Bulgaria's Varna Aquarium Names 1st Octopus after Indian Ocean

Society » ENVIRONMENT | July 17, 2011, Sunday // 14:09
Bulgaria: Bulgaria's Varna Aquarium Names 1st Octopus after Indian Ocean The first octopus at the Varna Aquarium has been named Indy - after his birthplace, the Indian Ocean. Photo by BGNES

The aquarium in the Bulgarian Black Sea capital Varna has given a name to its first octopus ever.

The new inhabitant, a baby Octopus, (Octopus vulgaris), arrived in Varna last week.

On Sunday, as the Varna Aquarium celebrated its holiday, it named its first octopus "Indy" - after the Indian Ocean where the octopus originates from.

The name was selected after some 20% of the submissions in the contest to pick a name for the new attraction of the Varna Aquarium were "Indy", the aquarium director Asen Nikolov explained as cited by Radio Focus Varna.

Indy, who is about 1.5 months old, and about 30 cm in diameter, will live in water brought from the Indian Ocean with the respective salinity.

The Octopus vulgaris also lives in the Pacific and the Atlantic at a depth up to 100-150 meters at the most.

The Octopus is a predator. It hunts at dusk. Crabs, crayfish and mollusks are preferred, although the octopus will eat almost anything it can catch. It is able to change color to blend in with its surroundings, and is able to jump upon any unwary prey that strays across its path. The prey is paralyzed by a nerve poison, which the octopus secretes, and the octopus is able to grasp its prey using its powerful tentacles with their two rows of suckers. If the victim is a shelled mollusk, the octopus uses its beak to punch a hole in the shell before sucking out the fleshy contents.

Training experiments have shown that Octopus vulgaris can distinguish the brightness, size, shape, and horizontal or vertical orientation of objects.

They are intelligent enough to learn how to unscrew a jar and are known to raid lobster traps. Octopus vulgaris is the only non-vertebrate animal protected by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK; they were included due to their high intelligence. Their lifespan is anywhere between 12 and 24 months.

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Tags: Octopus, Varna Acquarium, Octopus vulgaris, Aquarium, Varna, Indy

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