Hi all,
I am posting here as I hoped someone may be able to help me.
I work for a company called Silverback Films and we are currently producing a six-part series on the natural history of predators for the BBC. One of the animals we are looking to film for our Coasts episode is an as-yet unnamed species of Abdopus discovered in 2011 in Broome, Australia that has been found to regularly leave the water at low tide to move between the rock pools that it hunts within. Obviously this is a pretty exciting predation technique for a marine predator so we are really keen to film it and show people how amazing cephalopods are!
As the rock pools will be pretty much impossible to set up cameras in to capture any of the octopus's hunting within them in any detail we are actually planning to use a tank for filming some of these pool close up shots. We are working with the scientist who discovered the species who has the permits for collecting and keeping the octopus but he generally collects specimens which he euthanises for his taxonomy research so doesn't have so much experience in keeping them alive and well for longer periods. Obviously we want to keep our octopus stars alive and happy for their benefit and because it certainly helps for the filming!
I wonder if I could get your advice on the conditions we will need in the tank to keep an Abdopus octopus happy and healthy? We will likely be filming for three weeks and will have a separate filming tank with a rock pool set in it plus tanks that they will be kept in when not filming. As a species they are very similar in their looks and behaviour to A.aculeatus and live in the same sort of conditions (and the same locations in some instances) so I imagine we should follow the best procedures for keeping them?
Any help would be much appreciated
Cheers,
Alex
I am posting here as I hoped someone may be able to help me.
I work for a company called Silverback Films and we are currently producing a six-part series on the natural history of predators for the BBC. One of the animals we are looking to film for our Coasts episode is an as-yet unnamed species of Abdopus discovered in 2011 in Broome, Australia that has been found to regularly leave the water at low tide to move between the rock pools that it hunts within. Obviously this is a pretty exciting predation technique for a marine predator so we are really keen to film it and show people how amazing cephalopods are!
As the rock pools will be pretty much impossible to set up cameras in to capture any of the octopus's hunting within them in any detail we are actually planning to use a tank for filming some of these pool close up shots. We are working with the scientist who discovered the species who has the permits for collecting and keeping the octopus but he generally collects specimens which he euthanises for his taxonomy research so doesn't have so much experience in keeping them alive and well for longer periods. Obviously we want to keep our octopus stars alive and happy for their benefit and because it certainly helps for the filming!
I wonder if I could get your advice on the conditions we will need in the tank to keep an Abdopus octopus happy and healthy? We will likely be filming for three weeks and will have a separate filming tank with a rock pool set in it plus tanks that they will be kept in when not filming. As a species they are very similar in their looks and behaviour to A.aculeatus and live in the same sort of conditions (and the same locations in some instances) so I imagine we should follow the best procedures for keeping them?
Any help would be much appreciated
Cheers,
Alex