Maori Octopus Enrichment

Tintenfisch;106798 said:
Jean, Kelly Tarlton's has had the occasional P. cordiformis (though mostly it's O. gibbsi these days) and they are invariably fed dead food, with the occasional exception of a few tiny shore crabs for some hunting fun. Granted, the last one didn't last very long (I only met her once :cry:) but she was already quite large when the guys brought her in.
Interestingly, I only ever got nibbled by O. gibbsi, never one of the P. cordiformis. And as you can imagine, I had my hands in the tank quite a lot... :roll:

Do they actually eat it? Cos ours will only play with it when offered dead food and then they'll drop it and ignore it! Give 'em a crab tho' and POUNCE!!! Ours must be really fussy cos they won't have a bar of shore crabs either....paddle and cancer crabs (in a pinch, camo crabs :biggrin2:) if you please!

I've never been bitten by the P. cordiformis but the O. warringa is another matter entirely.....little *#%$*@%s !

J
 
While I am certainly not totally against enrichment, at this point I do not see the need if the specimen in question is being provided the best possible habitat.

I do think that you are on the right track with the simplicity of the enrichment you may provide as it may be easier to quantify. I realize that enrichment has been around for many of the higher animals kept in zoos as their captive conditions were certainly not ideal, fortunately much of that has improved. But does an elephant enjoy painting or an octopus enjoy going through a maze to find food? I do not know. I think that the enrichment is merely a means to an end. The elephant will certainly receive a "reward" after finished painting and the octopus will be fed. If the animals were not being rewarded, would they still behave in that manner; I do not believe so. At the aquarium, penguins are artists. Their feet are dipped in paint, and placed near canvas hoping that the penguins walk in a straight line; repeat. Is that enrichment?

Just keep in simple and when the time comes to report your data, you must steer clear from anthropomorphism as this may invalidate your data to your peers. It can be difficult for me to read a paper with terminology such as "likes" and "happy", etc.

I am actually on the enrichment committee at our aquarium, as hard as that may sound. My goal was not to pose rhetorical questions but to hopefully make people think about what exactly they are doing and how they can successfully quantify it. A difficult task to say the least. While I have not seen many papers detailing enrichment in fishes/ invertebrates, the ones that I have read have not indicated that enrichment is a necessary part of the animal's life in order for it to live a healthy life...

Good luck to you.

Greg
 

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