• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Aggressive Octopus

Obviously its very difficult to not be anthropomorphic when talking about pet animals and play.

I think it's right to say that they need to be kept occupied and get the benefit from interaction in an otherwise small environment.

I haven't had an octo bite but a S. officinalis bit was a good nip.

Roy's right about infection, if I have cuts on my hands I tend to keep them out of tanks, quite a few people I know who work in LFS importers have had infections, including fish TB.
 
And mizu, that't the first time I've heard someone else mention their octo floating upside down at the surface. My bimac Ollie used to do that when she hunted shore shrimp.

Nancy


Yeah Meatwad does that ALL the time.
leaves the tips of 2 arms suckerd to the glass and and then ballons out his body on the surface tension. Suckers facing the surface and body down. and sort of "feels" the water tension.
Cauese no small amount of panic in the Damsels. Because of the eclipse like affect.
hes big now so he can reach the far side of the tank with the tips of 2 otehr arms and sits there for all the world like a spider on a web made of water.
the problem happens if i go to feed him and don realize hes doing this.
My routine is to riffle the water with my hand to let him know dinner is ready and if hes just under the water when i do this....well...hes very explosive and water goes everywhere and i ussually drop his food and then i have to sit down for 20 min to get my heart rate under control.
Stupid thing.
:smile:
 
Neogonodactylus;80309 said:
To my knowledge, all octopuses produce some type of "venom" used to subdue prey. In the case of blue-rings and O. motuti, these could be lethal to humans. Others probably are not although they vary in potency from species to species, with the size of the animal, and with the efficiency of the delivery. Most bites I have received caused little more than some blood loss followed by a mild local inflamation, but one bite by an O. rubescens was a bit nastier. Another factor to consider aside from the risk of infection that I raised earlier is the possibility of an allergic reaction. The bite of an octopus will probably introduce foreign proteins (venom / saliva) into your system. It can be difficult to predict how your body will handle this, but an allergic reaction is possible.

Roy

I think too that the "strength" of the venom is species specific (I certainly don't have Roy's experience so I'm extrapolating with little data.....naughty!) BUT I've been bitten 3 times now by our midget octopus (O. warringa/huttonicomplex) and it was like a wasp sting but the ache lasted 3 weeks and I lost fine motor control in the fingers of the bitten hand.....very frustrating when trying to mount 1mm long statoliths onto slides or when trying to bead (my other obsession!). It was like having my hand in very thick tight gloves. of course I am very allergy prone but other staff members have reported the same sensations (AFTER they finished swearing :biggrin2: ) I've never been bitten by our P. cordiformis but staff who have been bitten by both reckon the big guys bite is nothing compared to the midgets!

my :twocents:!

Cheers

J
 
Jean;80460 said:
I think too that the "strength" of the venom is species specific (I certainly don't have Roy's experience so I'm extrapolating with little data.....naughty!) BUT I've been bitten 3 times now by our midget octopus (O. warringa/huttonicomplex) and it was like a wasp sting but the ache lasted 3 weeks and I lost fine motor control in the fingers of the bitten hand.....very frustrating when trying to mount 1mm long statoliths onto slides or when trying to bead (my other obsession!). It was like having my hand in very thick tight gloves. of course I am very allergy prone but other staff members have reported the same sensations (AFTER they finished swearing :biggrin2: ) I've never been bitten by our P. cordiformis but staff who have been bitten by both reckon the big guys bite is nothing compared to the midgets!

my :twocents:!

Cheers

J

When Dr. Gilly gave us the tour at TONMOcon I, he mentioned that ceph toxin (as we were looking at his Sepia Officinalis eat a crab) causes paralysis in crustaceans the same way some insecticides work on insects: it causes all the muscles to contract at once. I think (I may be remembering wrong on this) that this involved locking the calcium channels open in the muscles so the muscle thought the nerves were always firing, but it may have been in the nerves going to the muscles instead. Anyway, apparently it's pretty specific to ion channels in arthropods, so it doesn't do this to humans, but that does suggest that ceph saliva is designed to inject a toxin into anything it bites... which is likely to induce an immune response (because of the foreign proteins) as well as the potential for an allergic reaction.

I don't know how widely the contents of the venom varies between species-- obviously the blue-rings are special because of the TTX-bacteria culture glands...

I'm not really going anywhere in particular with this post, just thought I'd mention some factoids I'd picked up...
 
monty;80464 said:
When Dr. Gilly gave us the tour at TONMOcon I, he mentioned that ceph toxin (as we were looking at his Sepia Officinalis eat a crab) causes paralysis in crustaceans the same way some insecticides work on insects: it causes all the muscles to contract at once. I think (I may be remembering wrong on this) that this involved locking the calcium channels open in the muscles so the muscle thought the nerves were always firing, but it may have been in the nerves going to the muscles instead. Anyway, apparently it's pretty specific to ion channels in arthropods, so it doesn't do this to humans, but that does suggest that ceph saliva is designed to inject a toxin into anything it bites... which is likely to induce an immune response (because of the foreign proteins) as well as the potential for an allergic reaction.

I don't know how widely the contents of the venom varies between species-- obviously the blue-rings are special because of the TTX-bacteria culture glands...

I'm not really going anywhere in particular with this post, just thought I'd mention some factoids I'd picked up...


I wonder how specific it actually is? Cos they can and sometimes do paralyse fish with it. Not P. cordiformis, at least ours seem to be arthropod specialists, I have seen our midgets take out small fish and they don't put up a fight, normally these little fish fight anything including us! Interesting speculation tho!

J
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top