Common octopus
Amazing fact
A common octopus sheds the skin of its suckers to keep their gripping surfaces clean and maintain a strong grip.
葛西臨海水族園
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A common octopus sheds the skin of its suckers to keep their gripping surfaces clean and maintain a strong grip.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Common octopus
- Scientific name
- Octopus vulgaris
- Japanese name
- マダコ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Cephalopoda
- Order
- Octopoda
- Family
- Octopodidae
- Genus
- Octopus
An octopus often seen along Japan's coasts. It lives on shallow rocky seabeds, using gaps between rocks as its den.
It has a soft body and arms lined with suckers. It can hide by changing the color and texture of its skin.
It catches crustaceans such as spiny lobsters and shellfish such as abalone. Shells it throws out at the entrance give away its den.
How the Common octopus lives
At dusk, it leaves its den to hunt. It grips firmly with its suckers when catching prey or moving around. It usually lives alone and has a territory. Females sometimes guard their homes with shells, stones, and other objects they gather.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web葛西臨海水族園Basic data
- Size
- Total length: 60 cm葛西臨海水族園
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Diet
- Crustaceans and shellfish葛西臨海水族園
- Range
- Coasts of Japan except Hokkaido葛西臨海水族園
Where the Common octopus has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- マダコ
- 简体中文
- 真蛸
- 繁體中文
- 真蛸
- 한국어
- 참문어
- Español
- Pulpo común
- Français
- Pieuvre commune
- Deutsch
- Gemeiner Krake
- Português (Brasil)
- Polvo-comum
- Italiano
- Polpo comune
- العربية
- أخطبوط شائع
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Gurita biasa
- Tiếng Việt
- Bạch tuộc thông thường
- Русский
- Осьминог обыкновенный
- Türkçe
- Bayağı ahtapot
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 葛西臨海水族園 — マダコChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Octopus vulgarisChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
Report a mistakeWhen you meet the Common octopus, look for this
- Look at how the head, with its eyes and mouth, sits below the mantle.
Animals do different things from day to day, so you may not always see this.
葛西臨海水族園EXHIBIT INFORMATION
Places that keep or show the Common octopus
Zoos, aquariums and other places whose official websites say they keep or show this animal.
Kanto
Displays can change with the animals’ health and the seasons. Check each facility’s official website before you go.
RELATIVES
Others in Octopodidae
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