[Octopus]: Dax, O. briareus

[tonmo]

Love it -- great vid! ...and thanks for sharing the vid on the TONMO YouTube channel It's on my to-do list to add some of our archival videos to that channel. We're almost at 1k subscribers thanks to your awesome contributions, @sedna!

 

[Zarahzu]

This tank sat empty from the time Anya died in May until 2 1/2 weeks ago when Philip from KP Aquatics messaged me that he had another briareus for me. Over the summer, we made lots of updates to this tank as it is 21 years old! New live rock, corals and an awesome new Kessil light helped spruce it up- and helped me from the growing depression of an empty tank on top of all of the other 2020 bullshit!

Dax arrived the day after the election, which was a balm for all of us- an excellent distraction! A male, at least “middle aged” by the size of him. He’s definitely nocturnal, he comes out in the evening as the lights are ramping down in intensity from blue to red. This light has a “moon cycle,” which we set mostly because we can, but he was definitely out early during the new moon!

His name follows my current habit of choosing Star Trek characters. I immediately thought of “Dax” from DS9 when I saw the size of him-because Captain Sisko calls Dax “Old Man.” I don’t think he’s that old, but I do like name so I went with it!

Daxx is my son's name

 

[sedna]

My daughter was vacuuming the floor the other day, around noon. Dax doesn’t usually come out from his done until at least 330 or four in the afternoon, but he was really intrigued by the vacuum! After he came out, it seemed like he was moving back-and-forth on the glass to match the actions of the vacuum.

 

[sedna]

I love how huge an Octopus can look on the glass without a frame of reference, DAX looks huge until you see him next to my hand.

 

[sedna]

Not “doing tricks,” but I put an oyster in a glass jelly jar in the tank to see what Dax would do with it. He did circle around the top of the tank for a moment to check it out before he plunged in for it.

 

[sedna]

Dax seems to be interested in what I’m doing with the iPhone on the front glass. Last night he decided to “dive bomb” me, I love the video I captured!

 

[sedna]

My husband got me those new filters for my iPhone so I could get pictures and videos that weren’t all blue. I was SO excited to see the difference they make! I’ve been working with Tony to get my videos on YouTube, which has been a little fiddley but I finally have it all figured out. Then Dax spent the last week waiting until after all but the red lights to come out. I was exasperated by Friday! He made up for it this weekend! We got in lots of time with him showing off- even after he was fed! Dax is certainly working his way into our hearts!

 

[tonmo]

these are great, @sedna!! Dax looks so happy and healthy; you are doing great work, as usual!

 

[sedna]

I don’t really teach any of my animals to do tricks, but I do believe behavioral conditioning is important! I decided to see if Dax will learn to eat his food from this jar in addition to stick feeding. Why? Sometimes he is too busy skulking around in his live rock to bother with eating. Sometimes he is more interested in playing tug-o-war with the feeding skewer- but I have food thawed out and 16 more tanks to feed! If he learns to find his dinner in the jar, then feeding time can be on his terms on days I’m in a hurry. He’s getting good at it, finding his food when he feels like it. I’m wondering if we’ll get to a point where he sits in the jar when he’s hungry, even if there’s no food in it...

 

[TheSeeker]

I think it is more probable that he will be searching the jar thoroughly and repeatedly when he is hungry very soon rather than sitting in it...He is such a beauty! Quite wonderful to watch