For a squid, the terms “arms” and “legs” are interchangable, as well as “tentacles”. They have eight shorter arms. These are grouped in pairs of two. Typically, these are used to glide through the water like humans use their legs to walk and arms to balance. Some species of squid can ‘fly’ through the water, and that’s thanks to their arms as well. All squids have another pair of arms.
These are typically longer than the other eight arms, and are used more for balance or direction in the water than actually getting through the water. However, depending on what the squid has to go through during its lifetime, it may lose a few of these arms. At that point, it has fewer than eight arms.
