Diner Accidentally Served Deadly Blue-Ringed Octopus At Chinese Restaurant

blue-ringed octopus

iStockphoto / davidevison


Hot Pot is an incredibly common cooking style in China. Whether at home or in a restaurant, the ‘hot pot’ heating source is placed on the table and diners cook/heat their own food in the broth.

There is an inherent safety risk eating hot pot food because it is the diner who is doing the ‘cooking’ and not the restaurant. However, the food set on the table to be cooked is rarely if ever the risky part.

But a diner in China was reportedly served a blue-ringed octopus on accident. The blue-ringed octopus is one of the most venomous creatures on earth.

Powerful neurotoxin tetrodotoxin venom from the blue-ringed octopus can kill a human being in 20 minutes. How it wound up on a hot pot table in China remains a mystery.

Diner in China finds blue-ringed octopus in hot pot

Thankfully, the diner noticed the octopus looked out of place on the table and flagged it.

According to David Strege at FTW, the diner who spotted the blue-ringed octopus shared a picture of it on Weibo.

The diner asked the Natural History science magazine what this strange-looking octopus might be. They quickly got a response from the magazine’s account which said “it is a leopard-striped octopus or blue-ringed octopus. Its toxicity is very strong and won’t be neutralized when heated.”

They added “We’ve seen cases where blue-ringed octopuses are, on rare occasions, accidentally mixed in with ordinary octopuses sold at markets, although the possibility of this happening is very low.”

The diner wrote on Weibo they hadn’t eaten it yet which might have saved their lives.

This might be worth remembering the next time you see someone take a picture of their food at a restaurant. We’re always quick to judge when we see someone whip out a camera but in this instance, it potentially saved a life.

Tourist In Bali Unknowingly Holds Deadly Blue-Ringed Octopus With Enough Venom To Kill 26 Humans

How do people still not know about the blue-ringed octopus after all these years and how it’s one of the most venomous creatures on the entire planet with enough venom to kill 26 adult human beings?

It seems like we talk about this at least once a year.

This tourist picked one up in Australia back in 2019 and went viral. A year before, this blue-ringed octopus was filmed swimming in a popular natural pool with tourists.

Now there’s this clip of this tourist in Bali manhandling one of the most venomous creatures on planet earth.

Here are the two clips:

In the second one, she actually points out that the video was from a while back when she was studying abroad in Bali. How did nobody ever tell me that studying abroad in Bali was an option? Anyway, here she is adding more context to the video.

https://www.tiktok.com/@kaylinmarie21/video/6942646430905437441

The blue-ringed octopus is incredibly small but they’re still pretty eye-catching. They typically measure 5 to 8 inches and are normally pretty docile but when they’re provoked they have enough deadly and powerful neurotoxin tetrodotoxin to kill approximately 26 adults within just a matter of minutes.

Another one was filmed swimming in a popular pool

The Irukandji jellyfish, a type of box jellyfish, often steals the spotlight for being the deadliest tiny creature in Australia‘s ocean but it’s really the blue-ringed octopus that deserves more respect.

The blue-ringed octopus is one of the most venomous creatures on the planet, and that’s also what makes this footage so creepy.

Australians love swimming in natural saltwater swimming pools off the beach. Tidal pools with corals and other sea life.

One of the most venomous creatures on the planet, the blue-ringed octopus, was filmed swimming just inches away from a camera and feet away from blissfully unaware swimmers at the Kiama Rock Pool.

The blue-ringed octopus carries enough neurotoxin to kill 26 adult humans within a matter of minutes.

The good news is that the blue-ringed octopus is typically a shy creature and wants nothing to do with people.