Nocturnal?

DocFrye

O. vulgaris
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Dec 22, 2004
Messages
95
I love my new octopus Jebidiah. I do. But I am very mildly annoyed with his choice of play times. He IS a briareus. I know they are supposed to be highly nocturnal. I bought special LED moonlights. I bought remote-controlled red fluorescent lights. I have the tank set up in my bedroom. I even set up the light cycle to turn on around 10 am and off around 8 pm.

Jebidiah loves to show off for my girlfriend from about noon – 4 pm. (She works midnights at a local hospital.) He is always out around this time, dancing around, swimming, playing with his environment, chasing Allison’s hands, flashing intense colors, etc. I am a vet. I don’t get home until about 7 pm.

Now, don’t get me wrong….. I still see Jebidiah quite a bit, and he is very curious and playful. I am just want to experience the intense activity going on during the day while I am at work!!!!!

Does anybody have any suggestions?
 
give up the day job? You could be your area's first "nightime vet"...heck, you would probably get one of the cable channel's to do a real life documentary on you !! Hopefully, you don't mind a fair amount of grungy cameramen living with you for six months.

Realistically, there isn't much you can do...altering the light times seems to stress the animals out too much. I hear the same thing from my other half too..."you should have seen !" etc... :sad:

greg
 
Briareus are nocturnal. We have had just a few briaeus owners so we don't have much direct informatiion, but that's changing rapidly.

Supposedly briareus can be greatly stressed by being out in the daylight, but they do seem to adapt - sometimes. The hatchling that grew up in my tank never appeared once in the daytime until she was over 4 months old, older than the young briareus many of you are buying.

Sorry that you're missing all the big activity - save those special lights. People who love octos end up having many, so many they'll be useful in the future.


Nancy
 
Reading over this again, why don't you bump that cycle up gradually...so daylight starts about 3 hours earlier??? Might work for you, of course, Allison might not be happy with you....

greg
 
lucky

*sigh* at least you see your octopus mine is always hiding I havent seen him out in almost a month. sigh all I see is a tentical grab a crab or something from under a rock and that is maby once a week :sad: it is just alot of work to see nothing :mad: so much time and efort to see nothing. I will soon set up another tank ether cuttle, octopus, or a reef. he was so active when I got him but now is always hidding. he shows up when I am not around witch makes it so much more stressfull. I think he dosent like me. *sigh* good luck though :hmm:
 
Clownfish, I imagine your octopus is a dwarf, probably O. mercatoris (which is often identified as O. joubini) It is nocturnal and doesn't have a very long life span (6 months or so). Are you sure it's not appearing at night? I know it can be frustrating not to see your octopus.

Nancy
 
It is probably not the ideal time for me to respond ( it is Friday Night, and I am celebrating with my too-good-to-be-true girlfriend), but........

Yeah, Clownfish, I see my happy, healthy, robust octopus all the time. I put him into a very established, over-filtered (let's just say insanely over-filtered and over-skimed), tank that had been set up for over a year. The tank had the time to cycle properly, establish an abundatly varied ecologic balance, and I was ready to deal with the feeding and care responsibilities of owning an octopus.

My octopus seems incredibly happy. He is growing back his two damaged legs (he was, of course, wild caught.) He is extremely playful!!!! He grabbed my hand tonight. It was the cutest damned thing you could imagine. I do have a few hours of video, but they are not of any decent quality.

I am certain I will be ashamed of this post in the morning and will edit it accordingly.

p.s. I can't wait to don my Tonmocon T-shirt.
 
Nancy, I have kept pygmies before. This IS a briareus. He is growing very quickly and has a definate blue coloration. Plus the webbing between his legs is huge and incredible to watch. I have seen hundreds of pictures, and I might be wrong, but I highly, highly doubt it. His mantle is already over 2 inches in length, and he can stretch a single arm nearly 12 inches.

I need to show a video soon. This is an incredible octopus.
 
Yes, Jebidiah certainly sounds like a briareus! :smile: You had me convinced before!

I think briareus are so beautiful with their webbing and their long arms - and they seem to be as friendly as bimacs. I hope I have a chance to keep one again.

Nancy
 
Greg, Nancy, and all, I somehow overlooked the concept of weekends!!!!!!!! This little bugger is flippin' amazing! I have sat wide-eyed and slack-jawed marveling at my acrobatic, exhibitionist of an octo for the last 3 hours. I have hours of video footage. I figured out how to increased the quality of my tiny (smaller than a cell-phone) Panasonic D-Snap video camera. After a few more hours of editing at my hospital, I am certain I can come up with at least a few minutes that might interest someone other that Jebidiah's proud papa.
 

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