The story goes like this.......We had a rather large common octopus called Harry (after Houdini) who we had secured (or so we thought

) in our octopus tank.......anyway we do a security/animal check at around 10pm each night and that particular night it was the then senior aquarists turn, she was five foot 2 or so and Harry measured just over 2m arm spread (I think, it was a long time ago....but he was BIG!) anyway the aquarist was coming down the stairs from the staff room and hadn't bothered to switch on the lights, when she heard......sluuuuuuuuurp.........coming from somewhere in front of her, so back up the stairs, on with the lights and there is Harry, halfway up the stairs!!!!!! She is all by herself.......but.... bravely gets a net an tries to persuade Harry to get in it and stay in! No sooner had she got one set of arms in when another would flash out and grab the wall, the floor, her legs, her arms etc etc........took her three quarters of a hour to wrestle him back into his tank!!!
Shortly after that he escaped 5 times in the space of a couple of hours.........then we released him......too much work!
We had another who had a mutual dislike of one of the staff, he hated her she hated him! Every time she walked past the back of the tank, (if the tank doors were open) she got a jet of water (several litres) on the back of her head! It was great fun on days when she was assigned octopus tank cleaning (which if we were feeling

was often!) He'd steal the tools, squirt her and if it was a day when we dropped the water level so she could climb into the tank in waders, he'd lunge at her, grab her, pinch the bucket (for crab debris) and on one memorable occasion managed to undo the strap holding one of the waders to her belt and get it filled with water.......very funny for the audience.......strangely... she quit soon after that!
J