Young Cal Clifford has been obsessed with octopuses since he was two years old. By the time he was nine, his parents knew that it wasn't a passing fad and decided to get him a pet octopus. They procured Terrence, a two-spot octopus, and a 60-gallon tank. What they didn't know was that Terrance was a female who had already mated. Several months later, she laid eggs that produced 50 baby octopuses!
Cal's father, dentist Cameron Clifford, consulted Dr. Tim Tytle, a reptile expert who has two octopuses. They have separated all the surviving baby octopuses (half of them, a much better survival rate than in the wild) and are housing them at Tytle's duplex. Each have names, like Pearl, Seaoncé, Jay Sea, InverteBrett, Swim Shady, Squid Cudi, Bill Nye the Octopi, and Champ. The Cliffords, who now own 90% of the octopuses in Oklahoma, are looking for homes for the babies, but will not let them go to private families. Octopuses do not make good pets. Instead, they are reaching out to aquariums and research facilities.
Female octopuses normally die soon after laying eggs, but Terrence is still around five months later. Meanwhile, she and her offspring have gone viral with hundreds of thousands of people following the octopuses on TikTok. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: docktopus via TikTok)
For Terrance to still be alive after giving birth seems to be rather rare, IMO. Glad to see her alive and well.
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