Meatwad Update

[Mizu]

Howdy Yall.
I am so from the north .
any way
Meatwad is displaying some seriously odd behavior which makes me think he might be unwell.
Like Last night he attached himself to the castle and lifted off the bottom and moved it.
The castle is BIG.
Like 2 maybe 2 and half feet tall and 3 maybe 3 and half feet wide. about 1 maybe a 1 and a half across.
its heavy and old Meatwad just hauled it across the tank.
He grabbed me and then when the wife tried to get me free he grabbed her.
took us 15 min to get loose.

Changes include Boosting the Tempurature to 78 Degrees F and complete clean out of the Protien Filter.

My qustion is this. Is this increase in agressive/interactive behaviour a precursor to death? Ie do male Octopus get restless when the end is near in an attempt to find a mate? Do females get a spurt of agression in order to get food for the brooding?

He is a Carrabien Reef Octo. Abotu 9 months old

 

[corw314]

Hmmmm....Interesting behaviors...Is he still eating? How's your parameters? Have you had him 9 months, so he could be over a year? No other denning behaviors? Sounds to me like he's just bored and messing with things. Maybe he's trying to drag the castle to be part of his den.

 

[Nancy]

Well, it might be prior to egg laying, at least the moving things about. Just before she laid eggs, my bimac Ollie did major rearrangment of BIG rocks. I wouldn't have believed it possible. And I saw her lifting them with just a few arms. When I realized what she was doing, I ran and got lots of larger shells, so she'd have a lighter material to build with and not all the rocks in the tank would be piled up for her den.

A few weeks before, she was digging in the sand, dug down to the bare glass.

As for grabbing you, maybe just curious or wanted a little excitement - don't know. Certainly their activity varies throughout their lifetime.

Nancy