Bittner - O. hummelincki

corw314

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So...I am very pleased at what Di thinks I have!! He came to live with me a week ago today from That Pet Place, Pa. He is so awesome! Very personable and curious. Eating well and has chosen to remain in the barnacle in the front of the tank. I love the many different looks he gets. He can go spikey white, to zebra legs with a dark patch down his mantle. When I catch him out stalking something, he twitches all the way back to his barnacle. Seems to be day active. At night I have been shutting down the light and in the morning he has his door closed with one of the shells. Usually he comes out when I am not aware but notice this all white spikey creature sitting on the outside of the barnacle. So far, so good! Keeping fingers crossed!!! And I'm thrilled to be a 2 octo household again!!:smile:
 
Does the den have more than one opening? Todate, none of mine other than O. mercatoris would take a den with only one opening. This does NOT change my species guess as I am 99% sure on the ID but am curious if my denning observations have now been blown :hmm:
 
DWhatley;191506 said:
but am curious if my denning observations have now been blown :hmm:
I would say that it has been blown out of the water!! Lol....Far as I know there is only one opening. Bittner took a piece of shrimp today and grabbed my feeding stick and I was amazed at the strength of this little one. Curled up he's the size of a golf ball. Got quite the attitude!
 
Couple more pics. Bittner is getting very curious. I love his many different looks. He has one when he is hunting where he looks like a moving blob.....and I captured the conehead look!
 
Neal was commenting tonight on how much he liked the black and white spiky look that Octavia was showing off as she watched us eat(I would call it dark brown rather than black). This is probably my second favorite species and favorite for interaction (favorite is always subject to individuals and who is current:oops:).

I want to think more about what can go in a tank as I know this species have more color options than we typically see (evidenced by in situ pictures) but my tanks lack large items of distinct color and I like an ocean vs a manufactured look so I am pondering ways to have color and still have it look like an ocean scene.
 
I was hoping tonight since Bittner was on the Blue coral he would change to blue, but no luck. I was sitting at my desk talking to Bill when I saw a blob on the back wall of the tank. I was so excited to see him out as this is a first especially so far away from his Barnacle! He's grown. I would say he is now the size of a tennis ball, curled up. He has the weriodest way of oozing around the tank, like a moving blob! I've noticed the striped look to his legs many times. He came out to take a piece of shrimp off my feeding stick and tried to take the stick with him once again. He has such an attitude. He twitches when he knows I'm watching him.
 
Bittner looks just like Octavia! I hope I have some time with him though as he looks to be the same size as Octavia was in the link you posted. Both my octopuses ate fresh caught fish yesterday. Not sure if it was ling or Seabass but they took it with gusto!
 
LOL, the link was Octane (my first hummelincki) but Octavia is the first female that looks very much like him. The other two females (Serendipity and Maya) were much smaller and had a different look. Octavia, Octane, OhToo and Bittner all have the same thicker look. Besides being less robust and not as human interactive, the other two females brooded very early after being placed in the tank and I have speculated several times that there may be some kind of physical differences in this group that we call hummelincki. Maya came from Live Aquaria but Serendipity was a live rock stowaway in the keys (where all my other O. hummelincki have originated). The three in the more robust grouping (Octavia, Octane and OhToo) have been the most interactive of all my octopuses. If you saw Thales FB post with elkhorn coral and a hummelincki, that one looks to be in the same group so I am hoping they are multiplying well this year and we will see more of them for sale. The primary supply area had been Haiti until the earthquake.

If you review your photo of Bittner, you can see blue in the lines of the octopus. They make blue through reflection and not directly with chromatophores so you would expect shadings rather than a strong color. Adding large color items needs more experimentation. I don't like artificial stuff in my tank but want to come up with something interesting to do with the split tank. Octavia showed the same very yellow color that Thales photo displays when she was caught so I suspect she may have been near elkhorn or staghorn at the time.
 
He sure can adapt to his surroundings! I gave him a broken open blue claw crab claw today! He is coming out more and more. I feel like I need to add some more rock in his tank to give him more options. He was on the back of the tank till he saw me come into the room and ventured to the front for the first time. Think he's finally realizing I'm his food source!! :smile: He still loves to try to take the feeding stick away and is really strong for his small size!
 
LOL, I took a bunch of pictures last night of Octavia manipulating a crab claw on the front glass :biggrin2:. The problem with the crab claws (they are Octavia's primary food) is that we give her an arm and a claw for dinner all in one piece. In a couple of hours I have to hunt up 3 separate pieces, the arm and the top an bottom of the claw. If I am quick, they are usually together somewhere but the brittle stars go after them pretty quickly and it never fails that I find a collection behind the rock on cleaning day.
 
Bittner is a pig....Jess and I went collecting tonight after work. Apparently the local fisherman have discovered my crab spot as I could not find any crabs of good size. Came home with snails and some small crabs. I put about 10 snails and 5 of the small crabs in and Bittner insisted on grabbing all of them. He was so full of crabs and snails you could see them moving under his web of legs. He could not fit into his barnacle and ended up just sitting with half his mantle in and his legs with his bounty out....And I got a good shot of his eyespots. Not illuminated like they can be but you can definitely see the pattern.
 
Both Octane and Octavia were/are big eaters. Octane was my first O. hummelincki (and first non-dwarf) and it took a long time to realize his eating habits were not normal. We worried through several octos that they were not eating enough :roll:. However, my biggest pig was LittleBit. She is the only one that I think would have over eaten if we would have tried to keep food in her aquarium.
 
Bittner is doing very well. I think he has Tripled in size. His new trick is to swim up to the shrimp on the fishing pole and try to swim back down with both the shrimp and the pole. I really need to get a video of this! Here's a great shot of his eyespot.
 

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