Isis O. bimaculoides NEW OCTOPUS Surprise from my Husband!

[DWhatley]

You do have a nack for finding all the dupious suppliers . In spite of their name they are not a "lab" and I believe they have been defunct for sometime.

The photo does show the same spokes as in Isis' picture but the close ups of the bimaculoides' spot is not focused well enough to see anything.

 

[SabrinaR]

I wasnt trying to imply that they are a lab or even legit. It was simply the only picture of O. tus that I could find.

 

[DWhatley]

LOL, I was sure you were not shopping for another octo right now but wanted to caution others that maybe. The photo hunt does give you a good "mission" should Santa bring a new camera

 

[SabrinaR]

Yes it do yes it do... Though I hope my husband isnt afraid to buy a good used camera. We set a limit for each other and hes really bad at it sometimes. Though I wouldnt complain if he got me a new one lol.


So I have a question... how much should Isis be eating? She REALLY likes clams and scallops and I have been feeding them to her a few times a day. Shes a little piggy lol. Today she has had 3 clams and 1 scallop. I always stand there and wait for her to finish eating so I can take out the "left overs" lol and she doesnt run or hide like she did at first. She comes out and dances all over the tank and its almost like when I dont get the hint then she will stay in one place watching us.

She has been interacting well and its so thrilling. She likes to "play" with my hand when I give her the food. Today she refused to let go of me and when I was lifting she lifted a pretty big rock with her.

She is so very different from HP. HP was never very interactive and this is a refreshing change. I put a toy octopus in the tank with her today and she attacked it lol heres the pic...

What you cant really see is she is hanging upside down floating on the toy with an arm or two holding on to the sides of the tank. She didnt play with it and it wouldnt sink so after a while she just let go but it was pretty fun to watch.

 

[DWhatley]

I still don't have a good feel for "how much" to feed. Roy and Joe-Ceph limit food intake for the bimacs and are convinced this extends their lives. Roy's animals are kept in a lab and I don't know how much the students/professors interact with them or if minimizing feeding is a good idea when they are young. Our briareus juveniles (whohoo, no longer hatchilngs!) eat one item of food, mantle to half mantle size once a day. The adult briareus would eat one full shrimp a day 6 days a week. HOWEVER, Legs (CaptFish's first briareus) at WAY more than that at one sitting (but I think he did not feed daily - correct me if I remember incorrectly Dave). One thing that you and CaptFish have observered that I have never seen is an octopus taking multiple items of food. Once ours have their meal, they sit and eat quietly for an hour or so and have no interest in additional food while they are eating. We don't offer second helpings once they finish though.

If you can find a Canon G9 (they are not made any longer), I love mine. Animal Mother started taking amazing photos overnight so I demanded to know why and the discussion resulted in MY Xmas present. Unfortunately, Dale no longer has the camera but you can see some of his photos with it in Kalypso's thread.

 

[SabrinaR]

An hour? Really? Wow, Isis can finish off a small clam or scallop before I even sit down on the sofa. I actually just stand there and wait for her to finish so I can remove the floating food and poop. If I dont offer seconds she continues to hunt and though I dont mind her eating my hermit crabs I would rather her eat the predetermined food lol. She has been eating the frozen clams and scallops so well that I will be testing shrimp soon to see how she like it. An hour... Thats a wow.

I had a thought that I will be researching here in a sec... I wonder about the protein in clams and scallops. Maybe there isnt enough protein/nutrition in them.

Ok I just check the protein in the clams and scallops. The clams have a min of 13% and the scallops have a min of 12% Are these good numbers?

 

[DWhatley]

Our first hummelincki would take a whole large shrimp for supper 6 times a week and fast for one day. We have never had another hummelincki eat anywhere near this much in one sitting (and believe me, Neal keeps trying to feed more to the octos because of Octane's appetite). Even out briareus haven't eaten a full large shrimp on a daily basis. I don't know if water temperature or species or just individuals makes the difference.

 

[Nancy]

Just to catch up from some past threads: yes, Ollie was an O. bimaculoides and it's her ring shown in the Bimac Care Sheet.

Since we've never had anyone keep O. bimaculatus, we don't have a good Tonmo photo of the ring. We did have someone who had an ocellus with a ring with one broken link, quite unusual.

I was told by the earler suppliers of bimacs that bimacs are found much closer to the shore then O. bimaculatus and were easier to catch.

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Thanks Nancy, I was going to PM you for clarification if you did not see the post. I guess I thought Ollie was a small egg species because you did not have/mention hatchlings but I am assuming now that she was just infertile because she was a juvenile when she entered your tank. She was before my time and part of the lost posts when the site migrated so I never read her journal entries (at least that is what I understand ).

After staring at a blow up of Ollie and of Isis, I don't see any difference in the chains. There are little blue lines radiating from Isis that might be considered spokes but the chain looks unbroken (I can't tell on Ollie's picture if the extra lines are present). The concentric rings certainly look the same. I don't know if I will ever be competant at finding species clues but I keep trying

 

[CaptFish]

but I think he did not feed daily - correct me if I remember incorrectly Dave). One thing that you and CaptFish have observered that I have never seen is an octopus taking multiple items of food.

Legs was fed daily. about a dozen shrimp or more. Pen is fed twice a week. I limit him to three crabs and six shrimp per sitting, but he will eat WAY more if i let him. He goes around the tank and collects all the animals he can catch then goes to his den to eat, Legs did the same.


I suggest the Nikon coolpix line of cameras they are cheap, and they take stunning pictures, its what i use.

 

[SabrinaR]

Legs was fed daily. about a dozen shrimp or more. Pen is fed twice a week. I limit him to three crabs and six shrimp per sitting, but he will eat WAY more if i let him. He goes around the tank and collects all the animals he can catch then goes to his den to eat, Legs did the same.


I suggest the Nikon coolpix line of cameras they are cheap, and they take stunning pictures, its what i use.

Now that sounds like Isis. She will eat and eat and eat if I let her. I wonder how she will respond to shrimp. She has really been doing well with the clams.

 

[SabrinaR]

Well I didnt have any shrimp but my fiddlers came in today so I gave her a few of those. Up until now I have been hand feeding. It then came to me that its probably not a great idea to do that considering that she might confuse my hands with food or at least associate the two.

My husband got to feed her tonight. When he handed her the clam she touched him and he giggled like a little boy. It was pretty awesome.

 

[DWhatley]

When he handed her the clam she touched him and he giggled like a little boy. It was pretty awesome.

I STILL giggle when they first decide to touch

 

[SabrinaR]

Me too actually. She is so curious I am amazed by her. I was looking down over the top of the tank tonight while she was dancing around and she came up just a little out of the water and tried to touch me. I am falling in love.

 

[SabrinaR]

Tonight was kind of funny. I was getting Isis dinner ready and the top was off the tank. Well Isis had been dancing around for a little while at this point and no one was paying attention to her. So after a while she decided that she needed to make her presents known and came to the top of the tank and SHOT WATER EVERYWHERE! lol I found it quite funny.