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New play idea-need help

dbbga

Vampyroteuthis
Registered
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
368
Ok I have this idea of rigging up a bell so that she can ring the bell for a treat. A friend of mind told me that as a joke on FITN and now I'm racking my brains trying to figure out how to make it work without stressing her out. First thought was to tie fishing line on the bell and attach it to the outside of the tank some how with a ghost shrimp at the other end of the line hanging inside the tank. But I'm afraid she would not be able to see the line after the shrimp was gone. Now after being in the chat room im wondering if she will ring the bell all night :roll: or should i change her lighting schedule or or or if if if,,, :? Any suggestions on how i could modify this so it would work? Just something to tackle and thought it would be kinda cool to. Thanks for any input :biggrin2:
 
Yeah, that was a fun chat last night! :talker:

Hmm... how about the Pavlov dog experiment, which went something like this:

1) Pavlov would ring a bell, and then immediately feed the dogs.

2) Continue process for several days

3) Ring bell but don't offer any food, and observe dogs salivate because they expect to eat.

4) Repeat process and watch dogs stop drooling after a while

I wonder that if you did steps 1 and 2, perhaps you'd get to a point where the octo would jump out of its hang-out place whenever you rang the bell. :?:

I'm hungry...
 
But isn't the bell really for you? Your bimac Sam will perform an action (ring the bell) which makes you go and bring a snack. Seems like she will have you well trained :smile:

My dog was very good at this, too - had me well trained :biggrin2:

Nancy
 
Yeah, there are a couple of good applications for play ideas... The practicality of an octo ringing a bell when it wants to be fed probably makes it the best approach!

Following up on the Pavlov angle, though -- as for an octo "hearing" the bell... Wouldn't the octo sense the vibrations? I wonder... ?

Anyone play music for their octos? :headphon:
 
re: bell ringing

I have an adult african ornate bichir that does respond to our doorbell...seems that it sounds like the whistle I make when I feed her...everytime someone rings the bell, she is at the top of the tank sloshing around looking for goldfish! No clue on how that would relate to cephs, but the sound does get through the tank quite well...good luck!
 
Hey all:

Actually, I do play music in the room where Tralfaz is located. I haven't seen him dancing yet, but then again, he is still a little guy. :biggrin2: Maybe I'll only put on music when I feed him and see if he starts to come out when I turn on the music????

George
 
This may not work but what if you put a little platform for your octi to sit on or climb in attach it to a piece of line over the top of a pully attached to a bell so when your octi sit on it or climbs in the weight would cause the string to move and the bell to ring. Its just an idea I know with Giant pacific's you can train them to get into a bucket so that you can record weights on a monthly basis. It could be interesting to see how often your octi would ring the bell
 
The bell thing isn't farfetched at all -- in fact, I saw something like it on Animal Planet's THE PLANET'S FUNNIEST ANIMALS, which occasionally shows unusual animal videos as well as funny ones. (On one episode, they showed the classic Octopus-opening-jar-lid clip.)

In the clip last night, someone had rigged a cord over their Koi's tank which attached to a bell by the tank's side. The cord extended horizontally over the tank, and a small weighted extension-cord, hung vertically from the main cord, lay just beneath the surface of the water. When the Koi wanted to be fed, it swam to the top and pulled the extension-cord with its mouth, ringing the bell. It was quite amazing!

I don't know how the Koi was trained to do it, but IMHO if a fish -- without benefit of intelligence or dexterity -- could learn the trick, certainly it would be a piece of (crab)cake for a smart omni-dextrous Octo to do it with an arm or two.

On another TPFA episode there was a related clip of a guy submerging his face in his Koi's tank while holding a small worm between his lips, and the Koi taking it from his mouth. However, it might not be advisable to try this with an Octo, unless you want to end up like John Hurt on that murky planet in ALIEN.... :shock:
 
Re: re: bell ringing

cthulhu77 said:
I have an adult african ornate bichir that does respond to our doorbell...seems that it sounds like the whistle I make when I feed her...everytime someone rings the bell, she is at the top of the tank sloshing around looking for goldfish! No clue on how that would relate to cephs, but the sound does get through the tank quite well...good luck!

OK, C77, once again you've sent me on a netsearch. Looks like a weird critter! For anyone else who's as ichthyologically illiterate as Yours Truly:

Bichir

According to this and another site I checked, they like to eat beef heart and ground beef, so I would imagine that if you run out of goldfish you can always hop over to Mickey D's and take out a Happy Meal for it (I assume it doesn't mind sharing the fries, Coke, and Disney action figure with you :biggrin2: )

"Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, hold the onions, hold the cheese, hold the Special Sauce, hold the sesame seed bun, and while you're at it throw in a little beef heart -- rare."

:heee:
 

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