Cephalopods
Mimic Octopus
Thaumoctopus mimicus · Cephalopod mollusk — family Octopodidae; described in 2005 after its late-1990s discovery on Indonesian muck
Plenty of octopuses match backgrounds; the mimic octopus impersonates other animals. First noticed on Sulawesi muck in the late 1990s, it forages exposed on bare silt in daylight, and its survival act is a repertoire: flattening into a gliding flounder, trailing banded arms like lionfish spines, or hiding all but two arms in a burrow and waving a convincing banded sea krait. Which impression appears seems to track which predator threatens. Longer lists get claimed — jellyfish, anemones, mantis shrimp — and deserve some skepticism; the core three are well documented. The animal itself is slight, brown-and-white banded, arms like linguine, probing worm holes across featureless slopes. Whole dives at black-sand sites are built around finding one. Stay off the silt, follow at arm's length, and let the show be voluntary.
在哪里、什么时候能见到
"常驻"表示在该目的地潜水时大多数情况下都能遇见它们；"季节性"表示在所列月份内可靠出现；其他任何情况都是意外惊喜，而非计划中的保障。
| 目的地 | 可靠性 | 月份 | 备注 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bali & Nusa PenidaIndonesia | Occasional | 全年皆宜 | |
| Lembeh StraitIndonesia | Occasional | 全年皆宜 | |
| AnilaoPhilippines | Occasional | 全年皆宜 | |
| Dumaguete, Dauin & Apo IslandPhilippines | Occasional | 全年皆宜 | |
| Banda Sea & AmbonIndonesia | Occasional | 全年皆宜 |
最佳月份一览
深入了解
栖息地: Bare silt and black-sand flats near river mouths and muck bays, foraging around worm holes and burrows it can dive into.
分布范围: Indo-Malayan region — Indonesia and the Philippines through to northern Australia and New Guinea.
习性: Forages exposed in daylight on featureless bottom, switching between impersonations — a gliding flounder, trailing lionfish-like arms, or a banded sea krait waved from a burrow — apparently matched to the threat at hand.
食性: Small crustaceans and fishes probed out of burrows with linguine-thin arms.
体型: 通常约 0.4 m; 记录深度可达 0.6 m (arm-span; the arms are strikingly slender).
与它相处时的行为守则
Follow at arm's length off the bottom, never dig, corral, or bait, and let every impersonation be the animal's own idea.
保育
Not reliably assessed; its narrow, developable coastal habitat and value to dive tourism argue for keeping muck bays healthy.
以此著称的已标注潜点
观看
来自官方渠道
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Sink or Swim? with Monét X Change | Monterey Bay Aquarium
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