octo senscence delay

[larkinvalley]

have there ever been discussed any way of postponing senscence in cephalopod culture? possibly some hormonal regimen or whatever...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/conten...t/198/4320/948

[bchristie]

I have heard of a number of attempts to prolong the life of octopods in captivity by manipulating the environment. Some have claimed that by limiting the food intake (i.e. a regimented feeding schedule vs ad libitum feeding) the life span can be extended, though I have never seen any published data or empiral evidence to suggest so. In fact I have seen specimens of the giant pacific octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini, with differnent feding histories reach senescence at sizes of 5kg and 30kg, both within the standard life span. The other variable is water temperature, that by keeping the specimens at a lower temp, the metabolism will be lower, and the life span will be extended. There is quite a bit more anecdotal evidence to support this, though the correlation has never been substantiated (to my knowledge). The paper you cited is quite interesting, though have never heard of any such manipulations in the public aquarium/cephalopod aquaculture communities.