Kalypso (O.briareus)

Nothing much to update about.

I haven't seen Kalypso in about a week, but when I clean the critter keeper out I find lots of stomatella snail shells. There's a pretty large supply of them in the tank as well as other snails and hermits so no shortage of food for her until she makes her presence known again. I may just remove the critter keeper and place the rocks back into the main tank so she is free to hunt and eat at her leisure.

So, until I find an octopus or a carcass I assume she is still alive and just hiding really well. Hopefully she didn't just crawl into a hole and die...
 
BWAH HAH! Kalypso sighting. IN THE DISPLAY! She escaped her critter keeper, and she is now at least twice as big as the last time I saw her. Just had to take a glimpse of the tank with the red light and then I saw her two little eyes and big bulging mantle on the other side of the tank. Yay!
 
Whoo HOOO:biggrin2:

I was going to write not to be so discouraged with this little one since the Mercs did not begin to get social until they were about 5 months old and Biddle was very shy when tiny too but I can tell this spotting has made your day!
 
Shyness is fine, complete disappearances for several days at a time not so much. While she was visible I offered her a shrimp on a stick, and she took it. I mean the shrimp AND the stick. Her mantle is about as big around as my pinky and she was strong enough to pull the skewer out of my hand. She ate the entire krill.

I'd been wondering where the emerald crab was too.... hah!
 
I spied Kalypso out and about tonight and Alayna had the camera handy so turned on the dining room light (that's where the tank is) and I grabbed some food.

Peaking out at us from behind a rock.
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She sees the food.
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Her arms are crazy long!
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And my favorite shot of this batch...
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From here on out I'm going to make it a habit of feeding her with the dining room light on so that hopefully she will get used to it and feel comfortable with at least the ambient light. The flash was on and spooked her the first time, but after the initial surprise she didn't seem to be bothered by it. This is the first time I've gotten her to come out in plain view for more than a second or two. I hope she makes a habit out of it.

Her arms will stretch well over 6 inches! Her mantle is about 3 centimeters, and about a centimeter across eye to eye. Growing fast!
 
I wondered if other octopus young would be similar to the Mercatoris. The babies, even in a breeder net, are not really even seen for about 3 months and don't seem to take on personality until about 5 months. I have one and maybe two of the tank bred (the most active keeps escaping the net and I am afraid it might become dinner for HideNSeek) and have just started to see the one on a regular basis (almost 4 months). She (just guessing of course but she stayes in her shell all the time - I was wrong about Medusa though) took a small shrimp from a feeding stick tonight so I will continue to offer one nightly. I am thinking (hoping) the other is male but he slipped out again after I rescued him three nights ago so I am unsure of his current state of affairs.

About how long was Kalypso's mantle and arms when she successfully escaped and survived the larger tank? I am hoping to raise one of Joefish's babies if he has a good hatch rate. Please keep posting your observations, successes - especially with lighting - and failures so I have some idea what to expect ;>)
 
those arms are crazy long... i wish i could just stretch mine across the room like that to do something or get something...
 
SandV;112428 said:
those arms are crazy long... i wish i could just stretch mine across the room like that to do something or get something...

Yeah, answer the phone without getting up... answer the door without getting up... get a drink out of the fridge, get the food out of the oven... the list goes on and on.

Kalypso got even more brave tonight. Instead of coming straight out of the large gaps I usually see her peeking out of though, she came from under the rock instead. Trying to be sneaky!

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Kalypso becomes more and more interactive every single day now. Last night I got home around 9:30 and the lights had been out for a while so I turned on the red light first thing and there she was, swimming around, arms waving about, and she was completely pale blue. First time I've seen her that color since I got her. She's always solid red with blue/green spots. Once she saw me she landed on a rock and turned red again, then climbed down into her favorite hiding spot... and then like magic appeared on the other side of the rock a second later.

My cousin was over tonight and she put on a show for him. I fed her a piece of krill, and she wouldn't let go of the stick, so I let my cousin take the skewer and he couldn't get it away from her. Very impressive strength... my cousin is a big dude and he was quite shocked.

Her mantle is at least 2 inches now.
 

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