Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster is closing part of its aquatics gallery this month to prepare for a resident it has never housed before: a giant Pacific octopus, expected to arrive in early September. The move will make the nonprofit invertebrate zoo just the second place in Colorado, after Denver’s Downtown Aquarium, where visitors can see one of the world’s largest octopus species up close.
The octopus is the centerpiece of a $250,000 overhaul of the facility’s Water’s Edge exhibit, according to Westword. The project triples the venue’s saltwater capacity to more than 3,000 gallons and adds 325 square feet to the exhibit, growing it to 1,100 square feet with eight new exhibits and 12 total habitats. Construction runs from August 17 through September 14, timed, per the outlet, because crowds typically decline as schools resume and before field trips and fall attendance pick back up.
The octopus itself will live in a 1,200-gallon tank fed by a life-support system with 300 gallons of additional capacity. Its sex is currently unknown, and staff has not settled on a name. Butterfly Pavilion’s Brianna Firestone said the pavilion wants to meet the octopus before naming it, and the organization plans to select three possible names and let the public vote on the final choice, the report notes.
An Eight-Armed Toddler With Three Hearts
Giant Pacific octopuses are the largest octopus species on Earth, with three hearts, blue copper-based blood, and nine brains, and they typically weigh 50 to 100 pounds with arm spans of 12 to 14 feet, according to the Seattle Aquarium. Despite that size and intelligence, the species lives just three to five years, dying after a single terminal reproductive period known as senescence, per OctoNation. Female octopuses lay tens of thousands of eggs and brood them continuously without eating until death, the same account notes…