Description

Also know as Common Atlantic Octopus, Common Reef Octopus, Reef Octopus, Scuttle, Small Common Octopus.

Found singly, in their lairs, or foraging for food over mud, rock, and sandy bottoms, of coastlines, to the edge of the continental shelf. Changing colour to match their surroundings.
They feed on crabs, crayfish, and bivalve molluscs
Length - 30cm
Depth - 0-350m
Widespread Circumglobal

This octopus is harvested off the north western coast of Africa as many as 20,000 tonnes annually.

Octopus make their homes in holes in the reef or bury in the sand.
They can often be found by the tell tail debris outside the holes.
Octopus feed by grabbing their prey with their tentacles or by spreading their skirt (the webbing between their tentacles) over the reef and hoovering up underneath.
They have a beak for biting their prey, the bite quickly paralyses their prey.
Some of the smaller Octopus are venomous to humans. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_octopus