Digmar - Octopus Macropus

If you have it taking the shrimp from the stick, I would not change anything and let it adapt to the environment as it is. Keep trying to get it to take food while you hold the stick. If you drape the aquarium, you are likely going to have to start all over again getting it to learn that the environment is safe. I have noticed that the animals we have kept in our living room tank (where there is very little daily traffic) are almost always shyer than the ones in the breakfast room that is heavily frequented. The biggest exception was a nocturnal that I visited every night without fail. Beldar was very interactive but few people can spend an hour at 3:00 AM everyday playing with their pet :gring:

Extreme shyness is a complicated topic. We see this in very young octos (even tank raised) as, what appears to be, a natural defense. Unfortunately, we also see it in older animals nearing senescence but then it is usual only when they are introduced to the tank at an old age. The most ideal immediate interactions seem to occur with obtaining animals around 6 months old (about half their life span). This is antecdotal observation only though and each octopus has its own personality and we don't know many factors that impact interaction. The tendency to be shy as hatchlings, however, seems to be an every case scenario. There are animals that never acclimate to humans and others of the same species that will come to be petted.
 
I got a quick look at my new friend this evening. His eyes are a reddish/yellow color with a thin, flat pupil. I could make out a yellowish spot in front of each eye that almost appeared to be a thin area of skin that you could see the back of the eye thru.

If you look closely at the picture I posted, you see the eye and the spot though they are hard to make out.

And this little bugger can dig! When I spooked him he pressed up next to a rock and the promptly dug underneath to hide.
 
Both behaviorally and visually, I am sure I have not had the pleasure of keeping one of these. We have only had a few recorded that would dig quickly (all Indonesian if memory serves) and the orange seems to be diagnostic as it is a mark you have seen somewhat consistently. I suspect we can officially say this is not one of the common species we see but the ID is a mystery.
 
Very much so! The spots can get a brighter blue-teal color, but the spot pattern and the short webbing between the legs is dead-on. I couldn't see the eyes very well, but otherwise it was very close.
 
So this morning our little friend was out rumaging around the tank and didn't run away when I approached. Apparently he wiped out the grass-shrimp population and was looking for more. I threw a few more in there and he's good to go.

Today in normal light his eyes appear silver with a flat line for a pupil.
 
Octopus Macropus

So I'm going with Octopus Macropus based on the info provided in my "Blue Spots!" ID thread. I'm trying to find more info on the Macropus and read as much as I can.

But to track progress and behavior I figured I'd start this thread. Oh, and I've figured out my camera (got some good pics of my cuttles) so when I catch Digmar out in the open, I'll get some good pics. I like the name Digmar. Found it with a brief search for Nicaraguan names and since he loves to dig, it seems fitting. But my kids still call him Squishy, which is just lazy if you ask me!

So I have noticed a pattern developing. Digmar stays safely hidden under the rocks most all the time, but when he gets hungry he'll come out and start searching for food. This seems to happen around 7am. I never see him out in the afternoon or evenings. Nor when I wake up at night sometimes like 2am - 4am time-frame. Once I give him a piece of shrimp he hangs out for a couple of seconds then goes right back under his rocks.

His temperment seems completely different than Squishy (my first O. Briarius) in that he's not aggressive and doesn't get agitated when I touch his arms. I haven't tried touching the mantel yet, still taking it slow. And when I feed him, always in the same spot at the top of the tank, he casually takes the offered food and seems very laid-back about the whole thing. Squishy would snatch it away from you and if you touched him he tried to pull you in the tank too!

I'm hoping as things progress I can get Digmar out in the open more often and trained a bit as I've read some of you others have done. Either way, very cool pet and awesome learning experience.
 

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