Daddy The Fresh water Octopus is a medium-sized cephalopod occasionally found in rivers of North America. It is said to be 2–3 feet long. They are said to be found in the Licking River, Kentucky; Kanawha and Blackwater Rivers, West Virginia; Ohio River, at Louisville and Cincinnati.
Sightings[]
On December 24, 1933, Robert Trice and R. M. Saunders were fishing on the Kanawha River near Charleston, West Virginia, when they hauled in a 3-foot octopus. Recent research by Mark Hall has proven this incident a hoax.
On January 30, 1959, a gray octopus was seen surfacing and moving onto the bank of the Licking River near Covington, Kentucky.
On November 19, 1999, a dead octopus was found on the bank of the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, Jeffersonville, Indiana, on some fossil beds. It was identified as either a Caribbean armstripe octopus (Octopus burryi) or a Bumblebee two-stripe octopus (O. filosus), both Atlantic species, and was not in a state of decomposition. Both are available through aquariums.
Theories[]
NOTE: All known cephalopod species are exclusively marine. Octopi, even more than squid, require high salinity levels.
- Discarded aquarium pets.
- Wandering, senescent individuals at the end of their life cycle, though the Ohio
River is a bit far to stray in essentially toxic water.
- An unknown species of octopus adapted to a low-saline environment.