Caribbean Reef Octopus in Cozumel

Blue-green iridescence over a body that changes colour and texture continuously, with long arms joined by a deep web. Usually first spotted as movement rather than shape.

Quick ID

Where You Will See It In Cozumel

Caribbean Reef Octopus is tagged on reef profiles right along the west coast, across a depth band of roughly 6 to 65 feet.

On an ordinary beginner boat dive. It is recorded at Palancar Gardens, San Clemente and Columbia Shallows. No advanced certification needed.

Deeper, and on the walls. It also shows up on Colombia Deep, Maracaibo, Palancar Horseshoe and Punta Sur.

Conditions change the odds more than the site does — the current, the time of day and how much the group has already stirred up the sand. Ask your guide what they have been seeing that week.

Behaviour

Hunts by parachuting the webbed arms over a coral head and trapping whatever is underneath. Changes colour and skin texture in under a second, and will pour its entire body through a gap the size of its beak.

Commonly Confused With

• Caribbean reef squid — Squid hover in mid-water in small groups; octopus stay on the reef.
• Common octopus — Hard to separate underwater; the reef octopus is the usual night-dive species on Cozumel's shallow reefs.

Diving Etiquette And Safety

Do not corner or handle. Keep the torch beam off it once you have found it — hold the light to the side and let it carry on hunting.

Part of the Cozumel marine life guide · see Cozumel dive sites · plan your Cozumel dive trip

Photo: Laszlo Ilyes, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.