Lerxt

sedna

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Livonia, MI
After Pandora died, D hooked me up with this awesome briareus through her friend Lynn of Island Marine Life. It came almost 2 weeks ago (12-15-09). The packing job was phenomenal, the temp on arrival was 66.5 F, but it was in the 20's here in MI that week!

I have never had such a hard time getting an octo out of the drip bucket. The acclimation went fine and after 3 hrs it was ready to go in. It didn't hid in the LR that was in the bucket, so I was hoping it'd drop into the tank as others have. I opened the tank, drained off the H2O from the bucket into a pail and quickly held the bucket above the tank thinking that once dry, down it'd drop. It stayed put. I got nervous so I grabbed a plastic cup with tank H2O and held it next to Lerxt. The octo just grabbed onto the cup, too, but wouldn't budge. It seemed like a good idea to just gently nudge it into the cup with my finger. Of course, then it grabbed onto my hand, too. Now I was less an arm, holding a big Instant Ocean bucket over my tank with a stubborn octo hanging on...:sink: I used my left hand to splash the surface of the tank H2O and after a minute it finally got the idea and descended. Amazingly, no inking!

The first 2 days, I had no tank lights at all. It would come out to inspect us, 5-10 min. at a time, any time of day. Once I put the lights on a schedule, I didn't see it out before 11 pm. It was right up against the glass on the 3rd night and John measured the mantle against his thumb- 1.5 inches! As soon as it started coming out sooner that 10 pm, it was time to set up the X-mas tree- right next to the tank. Back to "out after 11." All this while, we did see it out in the morning, before 8 am. Finally, it is coming out as we eat dinner- popping in and out of hiding places. It isn't shy but keeps it's visits with us short, still spending a lot of time watching us from farther back.

It has eaten fiddler crabs, hermits and the peppermint shrimp that was living with it. D, I'd have to agree about the bad eyesight, I saw it try to get that shrimp a few times and miss, then give up. It took almost 2 weeks before it got that shrimp! Last night was the first time I tried stick feeding it grocery counter shrimp, no problem.
 

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... and here I'm thinkin' something to do with Lex Lugar or some Bizarro World backwards equivalent (or at least until I looked it up :wink:).

How DO I pronounce it?
 
sedna;147671 said:
I've been waiting for a good for such a great name, but that's the alter ego name for Alex Lifeson himself...

Indeed! How could I forget!!!! Lerxt tongues in aspic :smile:
 
Very beautiful octopus! I'm looking at the arm length and Inkler definitely has very short arms. All have been injured.
 
Lerxt Rocks!

Well, of course he does, he's an octopus. I'm going with "he" only because it's namesake is a guy, and it just comes naturally. Elise insists on "she," since there's no good evidence to the contrary no one argues. The little string of arm has grown out more and is kept rolled up, but so are the other two regenerating arm tips.

Lerxt is without doubt my family's favorite so far. He comes out once the tank lights turn to red, so... I set the timing to 4:30 and he'll come out as early as that! His visits are still sporadic and short, longer if you give him attention. He seems easily distracted by other things, and for no reason will just cut a visit short. He'll continue to make visits all night long, though.

He has played with my had several times now, and it's different than any other octo. The others would only investigate with one arm tip, and concentrate on one of my fingers. Lerxt tugs at as many fingers as he can with 2 arms, and uses a 3rd to investigate the back of my hand- outside the water. It tickles and is distracting, and I'm realizing Lerxt is the first octo I've had where I'll really have to pay attention for escape potential. He's the first one I've ever seen spending extended time exploring at and just above the surface for fun.

Lerxt is not too sure about Bruce (the airedale). If Bruce barks too loud in the day while Lerxt is sleeping, I'll see a cloud os sucker shedding in the water. If Bruce runs up past the tank too quickly, Lerxt will hide for sure. I think Bruce is oblivious to Lerxt- I'm not even sure if a dog could see anything in a tank with red lighting...
 
Sounds great! everything you are describing is just like Legs! eventually he/she should start coming out with the white lights on. I have cats and in the beginning they used to scare Legs when they were around the tank l but now she pays no mind to them.
 
SueNami hated the dogs and never learned to tollerate them (so, OK, some people would classify my dogs as horses as they are not small and their head are at mid tank) but KaySoh pretty much ignores them now so this is likely an individual animal think. The dog racing by, however, is likely to always send the octo into its den just because of the movement.
 
ob;148004 said:
PS: Isn't it Lerxst?

You're right, I've been spelling the name wrong! You must be a bigger super fan than me... As much as I love Rush, I loved hearing a darker side of him on Victor. Do you listen to Porcupine Tree? Lifeson did a great solo on their song "Anesthetize" on the "Fear of a Blank Planet" album. Steve Wilson (lead singer for P Tree) listed "Larks Tongues in Aspic" as one of the albums he'd like to hear remastered in surround sound. Also on the list... MOVING PICTURES (wouldn't that be cool in surround?).

Also, just joking about Opeth- Swedish death metal. My husband made me listen to some (at least it's not Neil Diamond!!!).
 
PT rule most awesomely, I have seen and heard them play live a couple of of times, quite embarrassing me as an aspiring musician with their sheer perfection. Opeth obviously were served well by Master Wilson, themselves. King Crimson's Robert Fripp is a very intense presence on a number of PT tracks, setting off soundscapes and eery background noises. For the uninitiated: Wilson was doing all kinds of stuff under the Porcupine Tree guise, but the Lightbulb Sun album really started it off, with In Absentia as the first true masterpiece (enter the clinical precision of Gavin Harrison, superseding the equally wonderful Chris Maitland). Every drummer should at least listen to the album once...

WRT Crimson, on PT's latest, The Incident, Steve "borrowed" the exact sequence of notes from the start of [video=google;313252524631448666]http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...GkFCS-uALI7A-AbrlInYDw&q=red+crimson#[/video], tastefully, I might add!

I know.... :feet:
 

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