My First Octopus

They have a sense of time so feeding the same time everyday will start him/her looking for you and food (sometimes this takes awhile and sometimes it happens very quickly). Another thing we have found helpful is to feed the rest of the tank first so that there are chemical signals in the water. SueNami would wake up with the first taste of Cyclop-eeze and then eliminate shortly there after (only an octopus keeper would get a laugh out of watching for octo poop) but he had the most regular constitution of our octos, the others were not so punctual.

Probably the most important thing is to take time with it everyday, an hour if you have it, even if it does not seem to respond. We saw our little guy out watching us at dinner for the first time tonight. The nocturnal briareus hatchlings still don't come out until 11:30 after the lights have been off for several hours.
 
Sad to say but I have no clue what octo poo looks like. All I have noticed behavior wise is that my octopus seems of be refining his/her den. So that means its moving with a purpose which is a good thing. He/She hung out by the overflow and I fed it at 5pm. He readily takes food from the skewer. It seems to take the food with caution just sticking out one arm to secure the food. He/She did grab the skewer, but let go and decided that food was more important. I found a few more hermit crab legs on the sand. Shoud I worry about removing them since the crabs are soo small?
 
My experience with octo poo is a long stringy thing, usually white or pink. I was very good at capturing it with a stick and hauling it out of the water!

I would clean up even small crab legs, whatever you can to keep the tank clean. (And that's why I picked up the octo poo!)

Nancy
 
Day 4

Well I have some Octo poo to scoop then. lol My wife asked what this long stringy pink stuff was and I didn't know. Now I do. Here's a pic of today's excursion. I don't think I'll bug him with photos tomorrow.
 

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Day 4

So today my Octopus made three excursions outside of his/her den. It decided to move around some sand behind its den. Also I noticed he has killed one emerald crab. Healthy appetite check! He is definately doing things with a purpose. Today consisted of ensuring that the pvc pipe had a few shells put around it. He has went to his den to retire for the evening or got sick of looking at me I'm not sure which. I am so happy that I got rid of my 220 gallon FOWLR tank. This so far has been much more rewarding.
 
This so far has been much more rewarding
It pretty much stays that way until they brood or go into the last stages of senescence. It never gets easier in the end but the worst is an empty tank.

Not a happy thought but if this one turns out to be female and lays eggs, they would have a good chance of being fertile. We have no chance of raising them but there is a grad student (rawigton10) looking for eggs from an octopus that hatches pelagic young and I wanted to put a refence here should the situation present itself.
 
Day 5

Well I went back to work today and missed any excursions my octopus made. He was at the back of his den when I got home and I fed him. He took the piece of shrimp and ate it. He seems to like pieces about dime sized. As far as interaction goes it was a staring contest. He clings to a rock behind his den and looks at me. He doesn't seem comfortable to come out with me around yet. He moves his mantle up and down sometimes when come to the aquarium. Not sure what that is all about, but from the look on his face its not a hey how are you. lol. He has plenty of places to hid and has a wonderful array of rock formations to hide in so he should be comfortable in his new environment. Well at least he is curteous enough to come to the back of his den to look at me. Here is a pic of my octopus peering from the back of his den.
 

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Curiosity is a very good sign. You should see him reach to touch you pretty soon. Assuming this is desirable, just hold still and try not to jerk. The initial contact is usually brief and what you hope for is just touching (not pulling) and a slow release (vs acting like you have something distastful on you skin). If he pulls, don't allow him to have his way (the pulling will be toward the mouth) but don't try to end contact, just hold your ground.
 
Hmm. I haven't even stuck my hand in the tank yet. Not out of fear. I just thought I should wait until he is coming out of hiding to see me before trying to initiate contact. So should I move things along and try to initiate contact. It seems to me that the natural progression would be to get him used to me being near the aquarium and after that attempt to initiate contact. You have more knowledge on Cephalopods than I ever will so your advice is always welcome. Please let me know what you think.
 
uhhh, how do you expect him to initiate contact if you don't put your hand in the water? No, don't chase him, just make your hand available IF physical contact is desirable (not everyone is comfortable with this idea). You can do this by holding the stick a little closer to the food so that your whole hand is in the water when you feed. Once they start to play (and not all will, the two smaller hummelincki females did not and none of my briareus never have played in the pet-me, let me squeeze through your hand mode, hoping for the hatchlings to achieve this level of interaction) I have found that they will "run away" and kind of expect a version of tag but that is long after they start coming to your hand volunterily at play time (video of Puddles is a good example - I rewatched it and I sure do miss him)
 

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