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Swedish Musician Trains Octopus To Play Modified Underwater Piano

A marine scientist says the cephalopod's keystrokes reflect food-driven conditioning.

Overview

  • Mattias Krantz spent roughly six months training an octopus named Takoyaki and documented the project in a YouTube video posted Nov. 5.
  • He redesigned a submerged keyboard with pull handles and introduced a “crab elevator” that lowered a crab reward with each correct note.
  • Their first duet followed about four months of training, and Krantz now plays with Tako about every other day.
  • Krantz says Tako can reproduce the note progression from “Baby Shark,” though the result is off-tempo.
  • Krantz told The Washington Post he obtained the octopus from a Portuguese fishery, despite his video showing scenes from a Korean seafood market.