INKING>>>?

[Aquataholic420]

How normal is it for an octopus to squirt ink??

How do you react?? tiny net like the article says?

Do pygmy octopus's not squirt??

thank you.

 

[zyan silver]

all octopuses squirt ink. if they feel threatened and have a need to flee they will ink ,turn pale and jet away. how do i react? i find it facinating- you could call it love or elation..its amazing behavior. they can store quite a bit of ink in that gland and can release it multiple times in succession.i've even collected some of it when they inked on me outside of the tanks and used it 'as ink' to write with. by the way it can stain your clothes but lemon juice is pretty good at getting it out (of your clothes.) but i digress. i dont worry about it at all in the aquarium. if you have adequate filtration and water movement/circulation in your tank to truly care for an octo dont fret. its not particlarily toxic to them. just enjoy it.or try not to piss it off, or frighten it- then you'll never see that incredible sight. sure, dwarfs ink. they wouldnt be a self-respecting octo if they didn't. by the way with as many as 100 bimacs ive seen a lot of ink. and when anybody comes over to check them out youve got to demonstrate that ! zy

 

[cthulhu77]

A fine mesh net is the best for the initial cleaning...the ink is somewhat like mucus, and will cling to mesh. After that, keep changing out your filter media and the collection cup of the skimmer as necessary.

 

[norgebyblood]

yea, i was quite suprised with how gooey the ink is! the way it looks on tv and stuff it looks so fluid but in reality its like sooty snot! its gross, but not that bad, kinda like a little kid that gets colds often

 

[Gdbyrd]

It must take a lot of messing with them to be able to get them to ink. I've handled these guys in the wild and in one day for sure there were 8 different ones and none of them ever inked me. We do have TONS of Sea Hares(Inkfish) and those guys take a gentle touch sometimes to drop a lot of ink.

 

[Aquataholic420]

wowwww

THats so awesome... Thanks for all those answers guys and gals!

 

[Nancy]

My bimac inked a big cloud and hustled off the other direction - only did that 4 times, when she was startled. One time she was sleeping on the glass and I didn't realize she was asleep. I turned on the tank light and it really scared her, so much that she inked a huge cloud and then squeezed through a tiny opening to get to her den.

There is no way that a net would pick up this kind of ink. It turned the water black. Fortunately, I had a good skimmer.

Nancy