Despite regarding as a monster of the sea, in protecting eggs, octopus ( octopus vulgaris) turns out to be one of the most extremely scarifying mothers in the planet.
Life of octopus mother is mainly for reproduction. From an egg to an adult (for about one year), octopus mother has to live a fearless way as she needs to hunt and eat as much as possible to prepare for laying eggs. Octopus lays eggs once in its life but an enormous number of eggs from 50,000 to 200,000 is produced. After this, unfortunately, everything is not over for an octopus mother.
She then is so busy to look after her eggs that she even does not have time to hunt and eat. She must keep flowing water over eggs and gives them the gentle wash regularly. It is to provide octopus babies with oxygen so that they can breathe through tiny holes in eggs’ cell. She also needs to watch over and fights against her ancestors like the cod, which always try to steal her eggs if they have chance. It takes eggs roughly 40 days to hatch so it is also 40 days without eating and resting of an octopus mother. Nevertheless, no matter how hungry she is, she never leaves her eggs unprotected. Octopus mother has been known to digest her own arms to live during this period.
After egg hatching, octopus mother completes her mission and falls into serious condition. She is too weak and exhausted due to long time nurturing and protecting her eggs. It can be said that at this time, life is over for an octopus mother as she can not protect herself from attacks of other fishes.
Although she dies, a new generation of octopus is produced thanks to her extraordinary devotion. In brief, it can be seen that octopus is really one of the most extremely scarifying mothers becauseshe invests all of her life in her babies.