[Octopus]: Megamind - O Mercatoris(?) Hitchhiking Octopus

[Nikky.Werr]

oh also I received an email from one of the forums I'm a member of and it spoke about using old phones as cameras to view your fish tank from work or anywhere. This seemed pretty cool so I installed the app on two old android phones and, though the video isn't the clearest, I see a lot more of Megamind than I did before. Pretty handy having these old gadgets sitting around ^^ If anyone's insterested the app is called "at home video". I'm not sure if that one's available for ios but there are also several ios and cross platform apps that do the same thing.

 

[DWhatley]

Just happen to have a couple of old phones but not sure of compatibility ... will have to investigate

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Hey everyone, here's a short update Megamind is eating well, he's settled into a little nook inside some live rock but he's facing the front aquarium glass so I see him all the time now. He's less shy, won't accept food yet (I've opted for just feeding him live food straight from Ocoa Bay which he accepts readily). He'll let me observe him and he'll observe me back but when he gets tired of looking at me, he kind of halfway drops down from the nook and pulls up any shells and pebbles from the sandy bottom and then slides back into his nook holding the shells and pebbles in front of his peeping hole. I took some pictures, I've realized what a lousy shot I am with moving creatures since my macro lens is only manual focus. And I thought I was halfway decent lol
You can tell in the photos when he decides he no longer wants my prying eyes staring at him. I wish the photographs were better though, the light is very low so I end up needing to use slower shutter speeds and my shaky right hand is extremely annoying in these situations...

 

[Nikky.Werr]

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Just happen to have a couple of old phones but not sure of compatibility ... will have to investigate

I've had to buy an extra long charging cable for the phones but they were pretty cheap. I find it pretty useful so far, I've seen many things I wasn't supposed to see lol. For example, I've realized that my cat has a habit of jumping on top of a shelf that's on top (about 3 feet above) of my other tank, where the tank lights are hanging from. Today she thought it'd be a great idea to continue her shelf jumping prowess and she fell inside the tank now i'm kind of worried for both my tank and my cat since that's my zoa filled tank and I know zoanthids are pretty toxic. Today is maintenance day anyways so both tanks got water changes and I ran some carbon through the one my cat fell in. Cat got a bath and I think she's in the clear for zoanthid poisoning since it's not like she ingested any zoanthids or had any cuts, I'm just kind of when it comes to all my pet's health be it a four-legged mammal, a reptile or a fish. My house is like a zoo, but then why be a vet if I can't have my own aquarium and petting zoo

 

[Nikky.Werr]

OH MY GOD! I finally took a noteworthy photograph of Megamind or at least compared tot he rest of the photos... I see some specks of green fluorescence on him and you can see his eye really clearly as well as reddish coloration. Anyways, here is another photo of Megamind. He's inside a 1-inch diameter plastic tube that I'd siliconed a bunch of shells and pebbles to several months ago (for fun I guess because I never used it after I made it, til now that is). He's investigating it, I added it to his tank recently.

 

[cuttlegirl]

cute!

 

[Nikky.Werr]

More Megamind photos, Ijust can't get enough. He was much more social/less shy tonight and I snapped these shots of him. Enjoy

 

[DWhatley]

LOL, my hand is too shaky even in normal lighting. My tripod is my friend! Great shots in any case. These guys are hard to photograph at all and with the red lighting I use, sometimes it looks like the tank is a blood bath (would have to be my blood though, ceph blood is almost clear with a blueish tint).

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Thanks DWhatley! Speaking of red lighting I'm still using my regular tank lights at their dimmest setting and i've covered 60% of the lights with black electric tape. I have LED's. I know that's not the best for them but I'm conflicted as to which type I should purchase for Megamind. How much of a difference would the red lights actually make? Is red a color they cannot perceive too well? Also I'm keeping him on a light schedule of 10am to 4pm and lights off the rest of the time. The room the tank is in is already pretty dark, the windows have blackout curtains. His tank is mainly live rock, some snails and a few glass(?) shrimp you won't find unless you spend a long while looking.

 

[DWhatley]

This is a nocturnal species so it will be most active in the dark. They are also shallow water so lighting will not harm them but they need the dark to hunt. Red lights all night seem to work very well. I never bothered with a timer on my red lights (but do keep them on the daytime lights) so they were on 24/7. The red lighting it great for night viewing and they don't seem to mind it at all (I believe they can detect it but will acclimate as if in total darkness if you never have all light off). Photography, however, will pick it up and make a terrible mess of the images.