[Octopus]: Briareus Baby '24

[sedna]

I got this new baby briareus from Philipp at KPAquatics.com in early March. I had some ISSUES in a couple of my other tanks that took all of my attention, which is fine because it let the newbie settle in without me being a helicopter keeper.

It's a cautious one so far, sits in a rock right up close to the front of the tank, but so deeply inside that all you can see is an eye all day. After dark it comes out and sits on its rock and watches us in the room. It'll come on the glass when I'm sitting nearby after dark, but still shy during the day. Just this week I've caught it out during the daylight but as you can see in the one picture that there's a wicked bad glare on the tank at that time so I can't get a good shot.

There's no name yet. I just don't have the feel for one. I don't know if it's male or female (a bit young to be imposing sex roles, isn't it?), and I don't have a sense of its personality. Honestly, most of my fish don't have names. I'm at the point where I don't actually know how many fish I have- I'm luckily having success with my Soda Cichlids and some goodieds, more projects that are taking time from posting. The octopus doesn't care what I name it. It's all just for record keeping in the long run- something it resonate with me eventually...

 

[tonmo]

yay!! A new briareus in the @sedna tank! Looking wonderful!

 

[sedna]

Everything is going great with my newest octopus. It's regularly taking frozen shrimp from a feeding stick comes out daily and is interactive when I have my hand in the tank. It's really following the standard patterns of behavior I've seen over the years.

I think I'm just becoming really used to the behavior patterns of O.briareus. I'm not jaded, but I'm not seeing anything that I don't expect to see anymore. I absolutely love keeping octopuses, but I have no need or desire to come up with a name for it- it just doesn't care. It's not like a dog or cat or baby that responds to a name- it's all just record keeping for me...

I've developed a kind of relaxed attitude towards the whole adventure!

 

[tonmo]

I love that! I'm hearing a lot from folks not wanting to name their octos; totally understand! It's a short endeavor, and they don't recognize their name or respond to words like a dog.

PIcs or it didn't happen!

 

[Hadla]

Haha that’s why I go back and forth from blooper to olive, glad he/she is doing well!

 

[sedna]

Got some more photos of my little one, and videos too- but I can't remember how to upload them to YouTube... .

 

[tonmo]

looking great!!

Following up re: the video troubles....

 

[sedna]

Still nameless but going strong! I can't clean the tank without help now, which seems to be right on track with how it always works out, it's comfortable enough to come out during nap time to interact.

The video issues are on my end, I don't have enough room on my iPad to upload videos from my phone, and it's near impossible for me to do it from my phone. My husband can fix it, but it means I'm waiting until he has TIME to do it...

 

[Hadla]

Wants it to be clean to his/her standards

 

[sedna]

Hopefully this video will work!

 

[sedna]

WOOT! Tonmo is a genius and now I can post videos! These are from a month ago when I was cleaning the tank. It's hard to get video clips with one hand in the tank and one hand working my phone!

 

[Hadla]

Was thinking of asking you about it yesterday! Glad it’s doing well

 

[sedna]

I was asked about whether or not I knew of a stuffed animal octopus that had a beak. I don't. But since it was a child who was asking, and I am a science teacher, I couldn't help but go overboard with this video…

 

[tonmo]

We get a good look at the hectocotylus toward the end there as well -- great vid!! Love the dog curiosity

 

[sedna]

Photo dump! Ugh, you can see that I'm battling the "red slime" in my tank- the angle of the sun at this time of year always gives me this issue, but by the end of October it's always gone.

Anyway, this guy is doing great and GROWING! I've been using a glass bottle for feeding, and it's only just starting to sit on the bottle when there's no food in it. Next step is to reward that behavior so that he realizes that he can communicate his hunger simply by sitting on/in the bottle. This worked with Anya and Salia, so hopefully he'll get it!