SQUIDS

Crystal Squid

at about 15 centimeters long, Crystal Squids are found in groups containing hundreds of animals, brightly flashing in the Grey Ocean.

Shallow Water Giant Squid

A relative of the regular giant squid found in the ocean depths, this squid differs little from its cousin except in its preferrec habitat, hunting in sunlit layers of the open ocean.

Eel Squid

Found in coral reefs in the Great Pelagic Ocean, these squids are ambush predators.

Treesquid

Native to the Forest Peninsula of the Unnamed Southern Continent, this tree-dwelling omnivore has roughly primate-level intelligence.

Bullsquid

Native to Boardor, Bullsquids are highly aggressive, bipedal creatures able to survive, if not thrive, in environments that are unfriendly or even toxic to other creatures.

The Bullsquid has an array of offensive capabilities. They display a very territorial disposition, as they have often been seen attacking other creatures and even members of their own species. At close range, a hostile Bullsquid will either maul its victim with its teeth, or suddenly spin around, delivering a powerful strike with its tail. At long range, the Bullsquid is able to spit a toxic, bile-colored substance from its mouth. While not particularly accurate or fast, it causes moderate damage, even at very long range.

Kraken

Now I will tell you that there are two sea-monsters. One is called the hafgufa (sea-mist), another lyngbakr (heather-back). The hafgufa is the hugest monster in the sea. It is the nature of this creature to swallow deer and ships, and even whales and everything else within reach. It stays submerged for days, then rears its head above surface and stays that way at least until the change of tide. Now, that sound we just sailed through was the space between its jaws, and lower jaw were those rocks that appeared in the sea.

The Kraken, which often grows to nearly 120 feet long from end to tentacle tip, is one of the largest and most dangerous creatures. These massive cephalopods are known for their tendency to destroy passing ships and have been reported in open oceans all across the world.

The Kraken's primary method of attack is to wrap its tentacles around its prey and pull them into their mouth while creating a massive whirlpool to prevent any easy escape. It is believed that Krakens will eat any aquatic animal smaller than themselves, including smaller krakens.

Krakens are well known for attacking and attempting to sink passing ships. It is theorized that Krakens only do this because they mistake the silhouette of the ships' undersides for passing whales. Krakens are believed to spend a majority of their time sleeping on the sea floor between meals so that they may conserve their energy.

Most of what is known about krakens comes from the lucky few that escape their attacks and from their massive damaged corpses that ocassionally wash up upon the shores. Most believe that the corpses that wash ashore are simply krakens that die of naturally after they spawn (just like normal-sized squids and octopi are known to do) and that the bodies are in the damaged state they are in when they reach the shore because other sea creatures have taken the oppritunity to make an easy meal out of a giant corpse.

However, many a dead Kraken are recorded as being found with unusual 4 foot long barbed spines embedded in the flesh, courtesy of various sea ponies.

Calimaran

Bred into their current form by the ancient lemurians, now used among the dragon kings' descendants as boats. The mantle's "wings" have split into two buoyant pontoons and the dorsal fin of its surface-cruising predecessors has evolved into a sail. Now it travels almost entirely at the mercy of the winds and tides, relying only sparingly on its siphon for powered jet propulsion.

This individual has entered shallow tropical waters for the annual mating migration. Juveniles can grow up in the relatively safe sheltered waters and migrate to the open ocean as adults.

Jellysquid

Found around Bumbleland, these squids have taken up where it is too cold for jellyfish to live. their tentacles even contain the specialized stinging cells found in jellyfish.

the young only have two tentacles, growing more as they mature.

Ghost Squid

A relative of the jellysquid, these Bumbleland natives are deep water predators.

Mooncalf

Small, and very poor fliers, Mooncalves are nocturnal and found across the entire world.

Amenasu

a predator of the ocean trenches, this whale-like squid is rarely seen.

Sessile Squid

Native to the Unnamed Southern Continent, the larvae of this species swim but bury themselves when they have reached adulthood. They use their feathery tentacles to catch plankton and other small animals.

Gull Squid

Gliding squids who live in large groups.

Landsquid

Almighty dung! THE GIANT FLESH EATING DEMON SQUID HAS ESCAPED!

A large, amphibious cephalopod, the Landsquid (also known as the demon squid) is known to be very aggressive, and during its attacks it will often utilize materials from the surrounding area as weapons.

Landsquids are solitary, with little known of their mating habits. They are found throughout the Great Pelagic, even in polar waters.

Given its advanced intellect, there is some question as to whether this species should be considered sapient...

...AAH! THE HIDEOUS MUTANT SQUID HAS ESCAPED AGAIN AND HAS CREATED AN ARMY OF CYBORG ZOMBIE SOLDIERS TO DO ITS EVIL BIDDING!!!

BALEEN SQUIDS

Hand Squid

Baleen Squids are comprised of two species of filter-feeders found within the Grey Sea. This archaic species is a deep ocean dweller.

Mantasquid

These more advanced creatures are oceanic wanderers, and are well liked due to their gentle dispositions

OCTOPUSES

Swamp Octopus

Related to the tree octopuses, this ground-dweller is a large ambush predator that can survive out of the water for up to three days.

Gorilla Octopus

peaceable vegetarians native to the Forest Peninsula, living in small, sociable troops.

Jumping Octopus

Named for their dolphin-like behavior, these cephalopods are often found in large groups.

Symbiont Octopus

Native to the Forest Peninsula, this creature lives in a unique form of symbiosis of Octopus, for brains, and Crab, for brawn and locomotion

Akkorokamui

the Akkorokamui, or Neighponese False Kraken, is far more sedentary than its squid counterpart, but still presents a danger to ships.

Odako

a smaller relative of the akkorokamui.

Mire Squid

The mire squid is an enormous cephalopod inhabiting Skull Island's rivers and lakes. To make do with the limited living space, the body is flattened and elongated and bears a muscular seam on the underside that resembles the seam of the flamboyant cuttlefish and serves a similar purpose. Mire squids are known to leave the water during the rain season and crawl to new bodies of water, where the seams are used like a pair of legs to support the body and aid the arms in moving it along.

They are highly intelligent ambush predators that will usually wait for prey to pass by, but will sometimes help it along by laying out bait or using the tentacle tips to mimic smaller animals. They are also known to twirl the arms in a way that creates a vortex to prevent fast-swimming prey from escaping. When threatened themselves, they will release a cloud of noxious ink which causes a burning sensation on the skin and can lead to blisters if exposed long enough, which led to the myth that the ink is boiling hot.

TREE OCTOPUSES

Common Tree Octopus

The tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis spp.) can be found in the temperate rainforests on the west coast of Equus. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

An intelligent and inquisitive being (it has the largest brain-to-body ratio for any mollusk), the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight. Adaptations its ancestors originally evolved in the three dimensional environment of the sea have been put to good use in the spatially complex maze of the coniferous rainforests. The challenges and richness of this environment (and the intimate way in which it interacts with it,) may account for the tree octopus's advanced behavioral development.

Reaching out with one of her eight arms, each covered in sensitive suckers, a tree octopus might grab a branch to pull itself along in a form of locomotion called tentaculation; or it might be preparing to strike at an insect or small vertebrate, such as a frog or rodent, or steal an egg from a bird's nest; or it might even be examining some object that caught its fancy, instinctively desiring to manipulate it with its dexterous limbs (really deserving the title "sensory organs" more than mere "limbs",) in order to better know it.

Tree octopuses have eyesight comparable to equines. Besides allowing them to see their prey and environment, it helps them in inter-octopus relations. Although they are not social animals, they display to one-another their emotions through their ability to change the color of their skin: red indicates anger, white fear, while they normally maintain a mottled brown tone to blend in with the background.

The reproductive cycle of the tree octopus is still linked to its roots in the waters of the Emerald Sea where it is thought to have originated. Every year, in Spring, tree octopuses leave their homes and migrate towards the shore and, eventually, their spawning grounds one of the many kelp forests. There, they congregate (the only real social time in their lives,) and find mates. After the male has deposited his sperm, he returns to the forests, leaving the female to find an aquatic lair in which to attach her strands of egg-clusters. The female will guard and care for her eggs until they hatch, refusing even to eat, and usually dying from her selflessness. The young will spend the first month or so floating through the kelp forests before eventually moving out of the water and beginning their adult lives.

There are many species.

Spangled Tree Octopus

The Spangled Octopus inhabits the mid to upper canopy layer of deciduous forests in Concordia. Being largely nocturnal, it camouflages itself with a pattern of luminescent chromatophores on a midnight blue background.

Giant Tree Octopus

the second largest of the tree octopuses, and thus able to go after bigger prey.

Leafy Tree Octopus

Very well camouflaged, this arboreal octopus is fairly small

Snow Octopus

Native to snowy areas in Equus, this larger relative of the tree octopus is an ambush predator

Tree Kraken
This is why the Manehattan Zoo is not allowed to have these anymore.

The largest of the Tree Octopuses, the Tree Kraken of Brobdingrag is an apex arboreal predator, feeding on creatures such as the Hyperborean Monkey it shares its home with.

CUTTLEFISH

Beachcomber

Native to the Forest Peninsula, this amphibious omnivore goes over the sand at low tide, looking for any food washed up by the waves

SHELLED CEPHALOPODS

Oma

Related to the ancient ammonites, this Bumbleland native is actually partly amphibious.

Yilane Boat

a cephalopod bred by the Yilane as a boat, they are trained to follow simple commands.

AEROPOD

Aeropods are a species of airborne cephalopod, not quite octopuses or squids. the filter-feeding species shown above uses its tentacles to catch and eat air plankton and insects

DROME

a mostly harmless terrestrial cephalopod, Dromes subsist on a diet of crabs and other creatures, which they catch by causing prey to fall asleep, trapping them in a dream until they starve to death.

TRAWLING FALSE KRAKEN

Closely related to the Vampire Squid, this cephalopod is a specialist durophage, dragging it's modified arms through the sand, hoping to hit a clam or heart urchin. If it does, it's arms will reflexively reel the crunchy victim into the ring of shorter ones to be cracked open by the beak and eaten. It'll use it's radula to polish the flesh from the shell, which will be discarded, creating a twin-furrowed trail paved with shattered valves and tests, maybe a cheliped here and there.

Being large, slow, and squishy, a sorely needed defense is provided by extremely viscous ink that expands on contact with water, "flavored" with fecal matter. Needless to say, a pursuing predator will end up having a very bad day, maybe even a fatal one, if the ink coats their gills and and potentially suffocating them.

They breed a handful of times in their life, attaching numerous eggs to a sheltered rock outcrop and abandoning them. The young that hatch out are casually snacked on by a multitude of fish and reptiles, and as they outgrow their predators, they become targets for parasites, and as a result, small fish that gain protection as well as free food from their host.