Octopuses live in coastal marine waters and spend much of their time in dens, small holes and crevices in rocks and corals. They are generally solitary and territorial. Moray eels, fish, seals, sperm whales, sea otters, and many birds feed on octopuses. You can find octopuses almost everywhere in the ocean, from tide pools to the deepest ocean trenches.
While octopuses have the impressive capacity to change and adapt as individuals and as a species, there is one thing that all octopuses must have to survive, and that is salty seawater. Strange things happen, but the bottom line is that if an octopus is in fresh water, it shouldn't be there. Octopuses are solitary creatures that live alone in dens built of rocks, which the octopus moves with its powerful arms. Octopuses, like their cousin, the squid, are often considered “monsters of the deep”, although some species or types occupy relatively shallow waters.
Most octopuses remain at the bottom of the ocean, although some species are pelagic, meaning that they live close to the surface of the water. Octopuses also crawl along the ocean floor, tucking their arms into small openings to search for food. When it comes to a duel to the death between a hungry red octopus and a crab, the most intelligent thing is the octopus. Octopuses usually fall on their prey from above and, through powerful sucks that cover their arms, they drag the animal into its mouth.
While an octopus can tolerate these hostile conditions for a while, its inflamed cells will eventually stop working and the octopus won't survive. This World Octopus Day, get ready to be dazzled by the amazing compressive capacity of these cunning cephalopods. Octopuses sometimes even design a rocky “door” for their den that closes when the octopus is safe and sound inside. And that's because octopus' bodies are made for saltwater, and no known octopus species in the long history of octopus species has adapted to live their lives in freshwater.
Other octopus species live in deep, dark waters and rise from below at dawn and dusk in search of food. The octopus performs its famous backward swim by throwing water through a muscular tube in the body called a siphon.
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