Habitat

Wunderpus photogenicus, one of several species of long-arm octopuss, is naturally found along the volcanic sandy waters off of the small island, Sulawesi in Indonesia (Hanlon et al., 2007), and is also found in similar sandy environments through this indo-Malayan region from Papua New Guinea to Vanuatu (Science 2007).World map view of the natural habitat of Wonderpus photogenicus. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons  Here at depths of just under 20 meters (Hochberg et al. 2007), Wunderpus makes its home among a myriad of other sea creatures including other long-arm species of octopus, various flounder, fish, and predators such as the barracuda. Wunderpus has adapted, though, to live with and to protect itself from such predators by using its unique form of mimicry to not only resemble other animals for camouflage, but also to mimic other species in order for its own predation (Hanlon et al. 2007).

The Wunderpus is not tied down to any one den or home as many other octopi species tend to do, but rather when Wunderpus wishes to seek a space for shelter it will simply use what is most convenient to it at the moment.  Living in a preferWunderpus in its sandy habitat. Photo credit: Christine Huffardable sandy sedimentary environment, Wunderpus usually finds or creates its own personal den in the sand to remain safe and semi-hidden.  Wunderpus hiding in dug out den in sand. Photo credit: Christian Loader, Scuba ZooWunderpus will also use this mimicry of the flounder or flatfish to move long distances undetected when no coverage from its sandy habitat is available (Science 2007). 
Upon its discovery many people have also taken on caring for these animals in a home aquarium.  Which this is of course not its natural habitat, because it has become such a desirable collection for aquarists it is important to understand how aquarists mimic the environment of the Wunderpus and how they survive in a captive habitat. The practical fishkeeping website, which advises against caring for these animals unless one is highly trained, recommends an extremely well filtered, “well-oxygenated” aquarium no smaller than 100 liters.  They recommend a very similar set up to the natural habitat of the Wunderpus with the aquarium being very sandy with numerous places in which to hide.  It is also recommended to make the aquarium “escape proof.”  Wunderpus can escape through crevices no bigger than 1 centimeter, thus this is extremely important to keep things secure(Practical 2010).

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