Paul Sigurdsson, a very experienced diver, was enjoying discovering the bodies of water in Lembeh, Indonesia when him and his friends came across a little coconut octopus. This poor octopus had encountered a disposable plastic cup underwater and thought it would be the best choice for his ideal home.
Coconut octopi are known for using shells and other items in the ocean to protect themselves and coconut shells are the most popular ones they make use of. The plastic container this certain octopus was using concerned Sigurdsson, so he was adamant on doing something about it:
“While a shell is a sturdy protection, a passing eel or flounder would probably swallow the cup with the octopus in it, most likely also killing the predator or weakening it to a point where it will be soon eaten by an even bigger fish.”
Sigurdsson and his friends didn’t want to leave that poor octopus to suffer this destiny, so they took their time and went looking for a new shell to be the home of this little animal. After going around the area for a while, they finally found that perfect new home for the octopus.
According to All That’s Interesting, these animals collect sea shells and coconut shells that they find at the bottom of the ocean and eventually use them as houses for protection. They can grow as long as six inches, therefore finding that perfect home can be difficult if you don’t look for the right shell.
“We found this particular octopus at about 20 meters under the water, we tried for a long time to give it shells hoping that it would trade the shell. Coconut octopus are famous for being very picky about which shells they keep so we had to try with many different shells before it found one to be acceptable.”
