{"id":25865,"date":"2025-04-13T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T09:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25865"},"modified":"2025-04-13T09:26:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T09:26:59","slug":"a-cautionarytale-of-408-tentacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25865","title":{"rendered":"A CautionaryTale of 408 Tentacles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pet Theory<\/p>\n

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A Cautionary
Tale of 408 Tentacles<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

One pet octopus suddenly became more than four dozen. They went viral. Then it all went south.<\/p>\n

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April 13, 2025<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, there was an octopus-besotted boy named Cal who lived in the landlocked state of Oklahoma. One day, a special package appeared at his house: a small pet octopus, with bright blue eyespots on its head, that Cal named Terrance.<\/p>\n

Terrance turned out to be female \u2014 and pregnant. One octopus turned into 51, eight tentacles into 408. The boy\u2019s father, Dr. Cameron Clifford, worked day and night to keep the octopuses alive.<\/p>\n

Last spring, Dr. Clifford, a dentist, chronicled the family\u2019s efforts on TikTok, and the story soon went what can only be described as megaviral. The TikTok videos<\/a> racked up millions of views, and then the news media came calling. For a brief period last April, the story seemed to be everywhere: National Public Radio, USA Today, The Associated Press, The Daily Mail, Good Morning America, The Washington Post and, yes, The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then, the TikTok updates stopped abruptly. The media and the public moved on. But periodically, I found myself wondering what had happened next. So I called Dr. Clifford to find out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunately not that storybook of an ending,\u201d he told me. \u201cFairy tales leave out a lot of details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, a year after the cephalopod squad became famous, what once seemed like a modern fairy tale might be better read as a cautionary one \u2014 about the power of social media, the perils of fame and the challenges involved in living with (and loving) creatures that are made for a world far removed from our own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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@doctoktopus<\/a> They say, octopusi\u2019 aint easy., but de-glamorozing the life of owning a very soecial and exotic pet, is necesssary to preparing for the journey you\u2019ll take. #octopus<\/a> #marinebiology<\/a> #shrimpdaddy<\/a> #saltwateraquarium<\/a> #fyp<\/a> #cephalopod<\/a> #petoctopus<\/a> #aquarium<\/a> #octomom<\/a> #clambake<\/a> \u266c A Real Hero – Electric Youth<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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@doctoktopus<\/a> Feelin\u2019 Tripical Philanthropical #octopus<\/a> #marinebiology<\/a> #shrimpdaddy<\/a> #saltwateraquarium<\/a> #fyp<\/a> #cephalopod<\/a> #saltwatertank<\/a> #crabcake<\/a> #biology<\/a> #clambake<\/a> #octomom<\/a> #poseidon<\/a> \u266c Jazz\u30fbPiano\u30fbLofi\u30fbCafe\u30fbCoffee shop(1396282) – Tana Music<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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Pet TheoryA CautionaryTale of 408 TentaclesOne pet octopus suddenly became more than four dozen. They went viral. Then it all went south.April 13, 2025Once upon a time, there was an octopus-besotted boy named Cal who lived in the landlocked state of Oklahoma. One day, a special package appeared at his house: a small pet octopus, with bright blue eyespots on its head, that Cal named Terrance.Terrance turned out to be female \u2014 and pregnant. One octopus turned into 51, eight tentacles into 408. The boy\u2019s father, Dr. Cameron Clifford, worked day and night to keep the octopuses alive.Last spring, Dr. Clifford, a dentist, chronicled the family\u2019s efforts on TikTok, and the story soon went what can only be described as megaviral. The TikTok videos racked up millions of views, and then the news media came calling. For a brief period last April, the story seemed to be everywhere: National Public Radio, USA Today, The Associated Press, The Daily Mail, Good Morning America, The Washington Post and, yes, The New York Times.And then, the TikTok updates stopped abruptly. The media and the public moved on. But periodically, I found myself wondering what had happened next. So I called Dr. Clifford to find out.\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunately not that storybook of an ending,\u201d he told me. \u201cFairy tales leave out a lot of details.\u201dNow, a year after the cephalopod squad became famous, what once seemed like a modern fairy tale might be better read as a cautionary one \u2014 about the power of social media, the perils of fame and the challenges involved in living with (and loving) creatures that are made for a world far removed from our own.<\/p>\n

@doctoktopus They say, octopusi\u2019 aint easy., but de-glamorozing the life of owning a very soecial and exotic pet, is necesssary to preparing for the journey you\u2019ll take. #octopus #marinebiology #shrimpdaddy #saltwateraquarium #fyp #cephalopod #petoctopus #aquarium #octomom #clambake \u266c A Real Hero – Electric Youth <\/p>\n

@doctoktopus Feelin\u2019 Tripical Philanthropical #octopus #marinebiology #shrimpdaddy #saltwateraquarium #fyp #cephalopod #saltwatertank #crabcake #biology #clambake #octomom #poseidon \u266c Jazz\u30fbPiano\u30fbLofi\u30fbCafe\u30fbCoffee shop(1396282) – Tana Music <\/p>\n

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We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25867,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25868,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25865\/revisions\/25868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}