Species: Octopus tetricus
Bundjalung name: Manyil (Bundjalung)
Status (IUCN): Not evaluated

Characteristics

• Length/size: Up to 2 metres from tentacle to tentacle!

• Colour: Usually a mottled brown / grey, they can change the colour and texture of their skin to resemble seaweed or rocks for camouflage, or to a range of other colours to communicate.

• Breeding/reproduction: Tied to seasonal changes, females reach maturity around spring/summer. The male uses a specialised arm to insert spermatophores into the female. Sometimes females cannibalise males after mating. She lays strings of eggs and cares for them until they hatch (& usually dies shortly afterwards). The young have a planktonic stage of up to 60 days before settling on the seafloor and starting to hunt. 

• Diet: Primarily nocturnal feeders, eating crustaceans and molluscs, they have a sharp beak.

Habitat: Found along the east coast of Australia on rocky reefs and in shallow coastal waters. Often they’ll deposit the shells of molluscs around their excavated den – building shell beds which attract fish and hermit crabs which then attract larger prey, creating a little ecosystem. These ecosystem engineers are generally solitary, but have been known to gather in large groups further down the coast (like at “Octopolis” in Booderee National Park).