[Octopus]: Octane - O. Hummelincki (filosus)

[monty]

yup. great video..."'why won't you just believe I'm a rock, and start ignoring me?"

Octane has an interesting look; the spots look more bimac-like than other pics of hummelincki I've seen, but it sure doesn't move like a bimac, and the coloring other than the eyespots seems differently mottled. The closest thing I could find flipping through Norman is what he calls the Octopus aegina complex, particularly the one pic of Octopus fangsiao from near Japan (although there's only one picture, it looks like your pic where octane is showing eyespots and spreading webbing against the glass.)

 

[Animal Mother]

Just got to watch the video. Tuvalu would shine her eyespots the brightest whenever she was white with the black markings like in that picture. She would "puff up", turn white and flash when I was approaching the tank. I never could get a good picture of her doing it. Wish I'd gone with white sand!

 

[Nancy]

Good video, D!

Individual octopuses are different, and I don't think you can say because your octopus is interactive it's at the end of it's life. It's probably older than 3 or 4 months, though.

Females can be quite interactive, too, not just males.

In the future I see you and Neal with many,many octopuses!

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Nancy, one (or 12, whats a few numbers) octo at a time . (I can't believe I may have 12 octopuses, that thought just occurred to me ). Neal only takes a casual interest in the Mercs (and only in Sisturus and Medusa) but he it totally enthralled with Octane. Our skimmer came in today and Neal set it up in spite of our water disaster (frozen water pipe that broke). The hinge and latches for the top are due in Monday so her tank conversion is almost complete and likely to be an octo tank for a long time.

Monty, I am fairly certain of Octane's identity. I know the diver that caught her and that she came from a shallow reef (not sure if Gulf or Atlantic side but I think Gulf side) in the keys in about 4' of water. I will take a picture (if she will hold the look long enough for me to photograph it) of that very dull octo Norman shows for the Caribbean 2-spot. The range of looks is simply outstanding and, at least at this point, changes often.

AM, I am glad you mentioned the "blinking" as I was commenting on it tonight. Octane will "blink" even in brown mode but you have to be paying attention to catch it and I notice it most when she is against the black back of the tank. It looks a lot like the squid or cuttle blink and I don't know if this is common with the medium sized octos in general or not as I don't think even you mentioned it before. I really want a GOOD picture of that white spread out web and glowing eye spot but I was lucky to get even one in focus and out of color picture this time.

She ate two of her snails! They were supposed to be clean-up crew (and have been residence of the tank for a long time)and I forgot that larger octos liked to eat them since my Mercs leave them alone (for the most part). We are still trying to get a feel for how much to feed her. She takes quite awhile to eat a crab. The night she was only found one crab is when I found the cleaned out snail shells so we are trying two now. The first one she takes at the top of the tank by hand, a second she will eat but waits for it to be dropped, then pounces on it IF she has finished the first one. She does not leave much for the clean up crew.

Lynn sent several mithrax with Octane so I have been giving her both the mithrax and fiddlers. I hate feeding mithrax and one red one managed to escape her attention for 48 hours and climbed up on the pump. I took a picture of it (don't know if is postable yet), rescued it and stuck it in another, safer tank .


Octane seems to be settling in and now "goes to bed" when her lights go out (and I start to feed Sisturus and Medusa). Initially, she would come over to the edge of her tank when I would turn on the light to retrieve shrimp for the nocturnals but now when she goes behind the LR, she seems to stay put for the night. This morning's octo hunt found her in the same place as my panic morning so I hope this means she is comfortable with her digs. She is out in the open when we come home and stays visible until lights out. I don't know what time she awakens yet as this will be our first weekend with her.

 

[Animal Mother]

D, this is my best eyespot recording of Tuvalu

Really wish I'd had a better quality camera to work with but I guess something is better than nothing. At first, you can't see the eyespot at all, and then when I get close to her FLASH!

 

[gholland]

D- Wow- Octane is just the coolest! We're jealous... Great pics, too. Its fun to stare at them and try to figure out what's different. If we didn't know we were looking for Octane, we'd have been fooled by her "I'm a rock" impression.

 

[DWhatley]

AM, Tuvalu was definitely the same species. She looks much smaller than Octane in the video but it is hard to be sure since Neals fingers look small in the clip with Octane and he has very large hands. Octanes mantle is at least 2" (possibly 2.5) from the top of the eyes to the back of the mantle and she is close to that length again from the eyes to the end of her at rest webbing (that looks much like a "body" because it is so thick).

An earlier thread mentioned "stringy poop", did you notice this at all with Tuvalu? Octane had regular looking poop in her shipping bag but we are seeing her expel more of a clear colored rope with a very thin string (much like dog hair in fineness). This may be attritubed to the three snails she has eaten but I am not comfortable with that "guess". We were out today and came home later than usual. Octane was in the corner opposite her normal area and would not come to the front. Neal offered a crab that she snatched immediately and then slowly released the snail she had hidden in her webbing (still alive) so it is obvious she prefers the crabs. I have some mussles and slightly larger than normal live shore shrimp (thanks to Mike, at livebrineshrimp.com) that I will try tomorrow to see if they interest her and put some small hermits in the tank in hopes that she will ignore them. She also returned to her normal side of the tank and came forward to watch us (and get a second crab) shortly after receiving the first. We offered a third crab to see if she was still hungry (she did her first from the top by hand, second must be dropped and captured routine again tonight) but she just blew it away so we think we have a bit of a handle on how much to feed.

gholland, I will tell you that you have much to look forward to in our little world but the excitement with Octane is very likely to be short lived. We had several members to acquire this species over about a 3 month period and none of them survived very long even though they seemed to be doing well in their tanks. Knowing this, I pout a bit when Octane goes to bed at the same time I feed Sisturus and Medusa since I would like to be able to see her while I am sitting there ;>).

Your enthusiasm with Varys suggests you are hooked and will have plenty of time to experience these creatures. It is rather humerous that I don't get to feed Octane much as Neal beats me to her care most nights (he does usually wait for me to be present though) and I have the feeling we are unlikely to go without a larger octo now, in addition to my little Merc ;>).

 

[Bigpapa]

Congrats D! I just went through this thread and am so happy Octane is working out for you! When I watched the 'moving rock' video I couldnt help but think she looked like she had food she was carrying at the same time so that was why she kept her legs in. Anyway, I will keep checking in from time to time to see how goes Octane and again, Congrats and best of luck!!

 

[Animal Mother]

D - yes, I saw the same stringy stuff occasionally, usually if I bothered her while she was eating. She would blow chunks at me. Hah.

 

[DWhatley]

Neal was feeding Octane (to show her off to my sister ) early last night while I was in the kitchen and started laughing and calling me to come quickly! By the time I turned the corner, he was wiping off the lights (about 1' above her tank). It seems she jetted water at him, not once but twice!.

After giving her her second crab last night we were not sure if she still wanted another or was just hanging out at the top of the tank so she got a third offering and ignored it. However, this afternoon she came out at around 2:30 (seem she has something in common with L82rise), went to the top of her live rock pile and started feeling around with her arms. She located that crab and did not ignore it this time. Unlike yesterday, however, she did not stay out and went back into her den until supper time (when we are all sitting around the table in the room). In spite of the brunch, she took three crabs tonight (she kept two in her web and went to her den to eat them) so I am not sure if we need to leave an extra one in for her to find during the day or not. She is eating more than I would expect so I could use some experienced comments on quantity. If she is eating more than should be expected then I think we may need to watch for brooding behavior and give her as much as she will eat. I am hesitant to do that though because if she is not getting ready to lay eggs, Roy has mentioned reducing food intake to expand longevity. The fine tuning is a puzzle.

 

[DWhatley]

So far so good. Octane is not as "friendly" now and will sometimes hide when we approach the tank but comes back out to watch us within a few minutes. She is no longer taking crabs by hand but will approach the offering over and over, waiting for it to be dropped. This makes me think she is acting much more as to be expected of an adjusting octo. She was shedding sucker pads the day I got her and I hope that also means she has some natural time left. The best news on the longevity hopes is that the severed arm (about 1/4 of the arm is missing) that had a thin white "string" hanging from the end (I was worried the string was dead, potentially infected remains of the severed arm) is starting to grow. The stringy white material is now (or replaced by) a tiny arm tip complete with suckers and proper coloration.

Last night while I was watching her she turned a pale brown and squirted water from her sipon as if something upset her (no ink). She was obviously nervous but I could not see anything that should be bothering her. I finally realized that the washing machine in the adjoining room had started its drain and spin cycle. I checked the counter holding her tank and could not really feel the vibrations but eventually noticed that I could feel a slight vibration through the floor which would likely translate up the wall to the tank. Her reaction made me think about the "Octopus Volcano" video. She settled down pretty quickly and today, I did not notice a reaction with the washer going but it may only be in the spin cycle that it effects her.

I think the stringy poop may come from eating snails and muscles. I don't see it when she only eats crabs.

 

[simple]

yea mine gets that stringy stuff from scallops but not from shrimp.

 

[DWhatley]

Two weeks and still holding our breath. Octane is less interactive but still comes out to watch us every night. She "slept in" a lot yesterday and had me worried but tonight she came up to the top of the tank to take a crab and took a small shrimp from a feeding tube later so I think we are still doing OK.

I noticed that one of her water movement pumps had stopped. When I encouraged it to start again, she was more active than she has been for the last couple of days. She did still go to bed early (initially she would wait for light out but this week she has been retiring about an hour earlier). I keep worrying that she will start brooding ...

I keep trying to get a photo of her furry brown look but she does not keep it when she knows someone is paying attention.
Here are a couple of different looks. The picture that look elongated is not, she will show a "cone" head shape from time to time (my Mercs do it when they are unhappy but not particularly scared). The last shot is a poor quality picture of her tank and the little red mithrax that I just had to rescue

 

[DWhatley]

No pics tonight but a couple of random observations.

Neal came up with a way for me to remember and say the species name. After you think about his interpretation, it may be that there was intended humor in the name. Hummel (as in the figurines) and inky (as in octo ink) but change the spelling slightly to make it look official ;>)

When Octane takes a shrimp (2.5" - 3") she eats it and then takes a nap. This is seems to be consistent but we have not seen the rest period when she eats crabs.

My parents drove all the way up here (an hour's drive) just to see her and take pictures for an hour and return home. Unfortunately, when they came she had recently eaten a shrimp ;>). However, it was a fairly short nap and she ventured out and gave them a nice show. Later, mother called and said, multiple times (probably because mothers always need to repeat to their children to get a point across even after the children are grandparents themselves), "that is the neatest critter you have had yet". She did say that the seahorses were nice (we are horseless at the moment, having lost our last that Saturday) but Octane actually DID something. Their travel time was longer than their stay but Dad wanted to see and film Octane before she died (we had explained that she was an adult and may not be with us long). I had to laugh since they have never come up here just to visit my critters.

 

[Animal Mother]

That's funny.