My longest Macropus journal will be the one linked to Puddles and should give you a feel for what is most likely this animal but use the search feature (upper right) with the word macropus and check titles only to find some of the others that are journaled (I also kept a female named Beldar but there are several others). There is a video of Puddles on YouTube (and embedded near the end of his journal) where you can see him interact BUT note that I mention the reason I was able to take the video was because he was nearing the end of his life and was out just as the sun came up. He became interactive fairly soon after full acclimation (about a month in the aquarium I think) but chose 3:00 AM for his out and about time. Most of the other "nocturnal" species we keep are more crepuscular and hunt early AM and early PM so there is more time to view them. The macropus that Thales kept and one other (
Lennon) at about the same time I had Beldar were out some during the day (Lennon's thread may be a good one to read).
In general, the octopuses we keep can live solely on
fiddler crabs but varying the diet seems to be a good idea (some will even get bored with always having the same food and stop eating before they are in full senescence). I would stay with what you are feeding now for a week or two and then try to introduce other foods using a feeding stick. Looking at Lennon's thread, I note the he never acclimated to dead food but that is unusual.
Foods to try (multiple attempts are often required, especially at first -
start with an eye sized amounts and increase the size once easily accepted):
- Thawed grocery store (seafood market even better) shrimp
- Thawed scallops (warning, don't buy a lot, most of mine have eaten exactly ONE and then not wanted it again but Onn - my current O. briareus - is an exception and age may make a difference).
- Thawed RAW salmon (be sure to remove any bones) - this is a new winner for me and only offered to Onn but I will add it to my next animal's diet however, fish should NOT be their primary food and never offer freshwater fish.
- Crab claws from the live bins at an Asian/seafood market (we scavenge the claws that are loose). Be sure there is no odor, they freeze well. Do not freeze a whole uncooked crab
- Crawdads Live or tails only frozen (again, don't freeze the whole animal as it will be contaminated by the internals). Watch to be sure it is eaten if provided live. Crawdads are freshwater animals and will only live about 1/2 hour in saltwater. Remove if they die uneaten but will likely be welcomed. Because these are freshwater animals, it is thought that they may not provide proper fat ratios for primary feeding so mix them with saltwater foods.
- Clams offered on the half shell. Any crustacean works but clams are much less of a problem in the tank (oysters are terrible for the tank). More robust animals can open them but this one is not likely to. You can keep live clams in the tank and they will act as a minimal cleanup crew until you want to open it to use one for food (unless you octo opens and eats it). I usually place them in a bucket of tank water overnight before putting them in the tank to let them purge anything they have acquired that may not be good for the tank.
- Hermit crabs Some people have had luck using them but only my vulgaris (who would eat anything that moved) has eaten them with any consistency (Onn still has the 4 red legs that started with him 9 months ago).
- Snails will sometimes be eaten but again, I use them as clean up crew and rarely lose any (again except for vulgaris). If you can find some without an operculum, they will be easier for the octopus to extract. We have had one case where the tip of an arm was trapped but I believe the animal was at the end of its life and lacked normal muscle.
- Shore shrimp can be put in the tank and may or may not be eaten. They will usually be readily taken if impaled on a feeding stick (a trick in itself) or hand fed it you choose to teach it to take food from your hand.
- Live table shrimp. These are hard to find unless you live near the ocean and hard to transport but it give the octopuses a hunting animal. We try to bring them back from trips to FL and freeze any that don't make the trip but are still fresh.
